WESTLAKE : Apartment Cleaned Out by 4 Burglars

For the 12 years they have lived in the United States, Rosa Arrazabal and her husband, Oscar Valencia, have worked hard, trying to ensure a good life and provide for their two sons. Counting their pennies, the Salvadoran couple furnished the single apartment on Union Place with simple luxuries--a television and VCR, a Nintendo game set for the kids, a little jewelry and other tokens of the American dream taken for granted by many.

Two weeks ago, Arrazabal rode the bus as usual from her housecleaning job, arriving home around 4 p.m.

When she got there, she found her mother and her youngest son, 10-year-old Jonathan, standing in an all-but-empty apartment. All were stunned.

Everything the couple had worked for, save for a sofa, their beds and a second older television set that was damaged in an apparently unsuccessful attempt to remove it, was gone.

Arrazabal’s mother, Tere Canas, who had walked Jonathan home from school and was planning to baby-sit the youngster until his parents came home from work, had found the front door forced open. After talking to a few neighbors, she and her daughter discovered that four men posing as movers had cleaned the family out.

“Twelve years, all gone in a moment,” Arrazabal sobbed in Spanish. “You ask yourself, ‘How? Why?’ It’s incredible.”

All of the family’s electronics were taken, as well as all the records, cassettes, videos, compact discs and games the family owned.

Their closets were ransacked, and the family’s newer and better clothing and shoes were taken.

They also lost a typewriter, several glass and porcelain curios that Arrazabal had been collecting for years, as well as the couple’s jewelry, including her high school ring from El Salvador and a watch her mother had given her for her 15th birthday.

Even the kitchen utensils were stolen; the beds left behind were stripped of their linens and blankets.

Someone who lived in the building had approached the men, who were described as male Latinos, to ask what they were doing. But the thieves dismissed the curious neighbor, claiming they were moving the family to a new home.

The family’s possessions were packed into a gray van, and the men drove off. It was not until the family arrived home that the neighbors realized no one was moving anywhere.

“We’ve lived here for 10 years, and nothing like this has ever happened,” Arrazabal said. “Now I’m scared. I don’t even like to be in the house alone anymore.”

Arrazabal and Valencia, who works in a manufacturing plant, had hoped to buy Christmas presents for Jonathan and 13-year-old Victor, but now they must combine their scant savings to try to replace a few of the necessities they lost. They have no insurance.

“The boys are old enough now,” Arrazabal said sadly. “They understand.”

Anyone with information on the theft may contact the LAPD’s Rampart Division at (213) 485-4073.