A New Jersey man is desperate to find the thieves who stole a trailer that had 100 years’ worth of his family's history inside.
Police say two unidentified men inside a 2002-2006 Chevrolet Avalanche Z71 truck drove to a house on the 100 block of Church road in Medford, New Jersey last Tuesday at 8:05 a.m. Surveillance video shows one of the men look through the door of the home. Both men then attached their truck to a black and silver 2017 Scout Bravo enclosed trailer outside the home and drove off.
“I know they didn’t take it for the stuff in the trailer,” said the trailer’s owner Ron Copsetta. “I knew somebody wanted the trailer but that doesn’t matter. It wasn’t theirs.”
Copsetta, who has 11 siblings, is in the process of selling his family home of 90 years and had just packed the trailer with valuable items, including several family heirlooms, old black and white photos of a home built in the 1920s and military marching papers.
“To us they’re priceless,” Copsetta said. “To them they are trash.”
The family heirlooms include the navy uniforms of Copsetta’s father and grandfather.
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“Uniforms from 1908, like the USS Buffalo would be embroidered on the hat,” Copsetta said. “That was his first ship in 1908.”
The truck the suspects were driving in has chrome door handles and a chrome gas tank fill lid, police said.
Copsetta is praying that someone knows or saw something so that his family history isn’t lost for good.
“There’s a lot of people going to suffer over this and unfortunately it’s all gonna look like it’s my fault,” he said. “I don’t know where they would dump them or what. They are all in waterproof containers but that won’t be forever."
Copsetta also has a message for the thieves.
“Just bring the stuff back,” he said. “I’ll give you the trailer. I’ll sign the title to the trailer. Bring the stuff back.”
