Burglars late last month broke into a northwest Atlanta warehouse being used for the filming of the sequel to the 2004 hit comedy film “Anchorman,” but it was no laughing matter as, according to police, the thieves made off with more than a quarter-million dollars in wiring stripped from the building.

The burglary was one of several break-ins in recent weeks in the Defoors Ferry Road area, including one Monday morning less than a half-mile from the warehouse where “Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues” is being filmed.

The Anchorman break-in, which was reported to police on Dec. 27, occurred in a Defoor Hills Road building that is being rented out to Paramount Worldwide Productions for the making of the sequel, according to an Atlanta police incident report.

According to the incident report, $300,000 worth of wire and four computers were missing from the building. The thieves apparently entered through a rear garage door, then used a winch from inside the building to pull wire out of the walls.

A hand-written sign on the door of the building offers a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

Earlier that week, an apartment in the 2700 block of Defoors Ferry Road was burglarized and a laptop computer was taken.

Early Monday, a weekend burglary at a second warehouse on Defoor Hills Road was discovered.

That break-in, in which a tool box and power saw were stolen from Master Window Systems, was believed to have occurred on Saturday, according to a police incident report.

But the burglary wasn’t discovered then because a company official canceled the police response to the burglar alarm. The company president told police that advised his alarm company to cancel the call because, “he has had many alarm calls due to rats walking around the warehouse.”

“Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues” is scheduled to be released in December.

Like the original “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy,” the sequel stars Will Ferrell and Christina Applegate.