LA PORTE, Ind. — A barn shed and miniature cabin were loaded onto trucks and hauled away in what’s become a string of assembled building thefts in northern Indiana and southwestern Michigan.

The latest heists involved a 12-by-20-foot barn shed near Rolling Prairie, Ind., and a 12-by-32-foot cabin in Galien, Mich. Richard Johnson, a sales representative with Prairie Built Barns out of Tennessee, said three other buildings disappeared at his company’s manufacturing plant in Bristol, Ind., at some point over the past 10 months.

“’We don’t have a lot of leads,” said Johnson, who speculated the thefts could be the work of former or current employees, given the specialized equipment and know-how needed to lift and drive off with the heavy oversized load structures.

According to LaPorte County Police, the barn shed was discovered missing from Green Valley Plants in the 2600 block of E. Indiana 2, while the cabin in Galien vanished from a former car lot. Each theft was reported Sept. 23 following an inventory check, but could have been taken any time after the first of June.

Johnson said the buildings created from two-by-four construction are often placed in lots where people don’t always work full-time, but advertising displays list a telephone number for interested buyers to contact the company.

Prairie Built Barns, headquartered in Halls, Tenn., has one other manufacturing plant outside Indianapolis. The buildings are also sold in Illinois, Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina and Alabama. Only the structures in this region, though, have disappeared.

LaPorte County Police Chief of Detectives Pat Cicero said one possible theory is the buildings are being sold and delivered by the thieves directly to black market buyers at a cheaper price.

“It’s like anything else. Anything of value, someone is going to find that it’s going to be beneficial to them somehow,” said Cicero, who’s never before heard of buildings already constructed being stolen.

It’s a first-time experience for Johnson, too, who said the miniature cabins often go by lakes and other resort areas from buyers wanting affordable lodging for vacations or long weekends. The stolen cabin retails for about $6,000 while the barn shed was priced at $4,500, he added.

Because the thefts were recently reported, Cicero said it might take the watchful eyes of a patrol officer suspicious about a building getting trucked down the road or an anonymous tip, to solve the thefts.