A last-mile courier van carrying controlled pharmaceuticals was broken into outside a hospital in Modesto, CA, one of a growing number of last-mile thefts recently, according to FreightWatch International. The company says it is the first pharmaceutical theft in California north of Los Angeles since 2011, but it is part of a trend that drug-delivery operations are seeing. The state has reported four other pharmaceutical thefts in 2013, all in the LA area. One of those was a last-mile courier theft. According to FreightWatch, there have been 29 last-mile courier thefts so far this year, the majority in the Detroit, MI, area including the armed robbery of a drug-delivery vehicle in January. That compares to 12 in all of last year. Often these kinds of thefts involve violence, the company explained. FreightWatch recommends that last-mile delivery drivers try to park in secured areas. Report (reg. req.)