crime Catalytic converter theft in state rising
A beam of light glints beneath Isaac Agyeman’s 2009 Prius, parked outside his
It was the second time Agyeman’s catalytic converter — which scrubs a car’s emissions to make them less toxic and contains precious metals — had been stolen. This time, he caught the whole thing on camera.
“I was upset. I was really frustrated,” he said. He filed a police report, sent them the footage and called his insurance company. On top of everything, it was his birthday.
Agyeman paid
Catalytic converter theft has spiked across the country in recent years, from 1,298 reported thefts in 2018 to 52,206 in 2021, according to claims data from the
wrote in a statement that the numbers don’t represent all thefts.
Nationally, 37% of catalytic converter theft claims tracked by the bureau in 2021 were in the Golden State — a disproportionate share, even accounting for California’s large population.
About 1,600 are stolen per month in
Catalytic converter theft is hard to investigate
Folks all over the state have suffered.
This summer, police recovered 112 converters and arrested 28 people in the Inland Empire. In September, four marked
In April, staff at
The organization paid about
It set them back
“Catalytic converters obviously have been around forever, and they’ve been getting stolen forever, but never this bad,” said
Before the pandemic, it was almost unheard of, he said. Now he estimates he sees four or five cars a week that have had their converters stolen.
The value of the precious metals in converters, particularly rhodium, has skyrocketed since late 2019, potentially driving the surge in theft. Rhodium is currently valued around
“It’s so incredibly difficult to investigate these cases, to charge them, and to hold anybody accountable,” said
It’s rare that people are caught by police while they’re taking the converter, since it happens so quickly. And if law enforcement finds someone with hundreds of converters, it might be suspicious but, said Tokat, because converters are unmarked, they can’t be traced back to a particular car.
“How can we disprove a claim that it came from a junkyard, or disprove a claim that they given it by some other auto mechanic?” said
States take action
Lawmakers across the country have scrambled to curb the catalytic converter crime spree.
• Regulating the sale of converters (for example, requiring more documentation).
• Increasing or creating new criminal penalties.
• Labeling the converters in some way so they can be traced back to owners.
States have passed at least 37 laws, according to Essex. But the laws are so recent there’s little evidence yet which, if any, are effective.
• AB-1653, which adds theft of vehicle parts to the list of crimes the
• SB 1087, which limits legal sellers of catalytic converters to people who can prove it came from their own vehicle, and to businesses including licensed auto dismantlers and repair dealers. Fines for breaking the law start at
• AB 1740, which requires people or businesses who buy catalytic converters to document the purchase by recording the year, make, model, and VIN number of the car that the converter came from.
• SB 986, which would require car dealers to etch a car’s unique VIN number onto its catalytic converter if the converter is “readily accessible.” It would also require a traceable method of payment for converters.
The first three bills were signed into law while the fourth failed to pass a late August vote in the Assembly. That bill was sponsored by the
Car dealers, who would have been tasked with etching numbers onto converters, opposed the bill. They didn’t think it would deter theft, said
Legislators amended the bill so that it didn’t require VIN numbers if the converter wasn’t “readily accessible” and marking it “would reasonably require the significant removal or disassembly of parts of the vehicle.” But Maas said that standard wasn’t sufficiently defined, and was worried the ambiguity would lead to lawsuits against dealerships. “I can’t tell you today what ‘significant disassembly’ means. I don’t know which car that applies to,” Maas said.
“We’re concerned that our dealers are going to be held responsible for not marking a catalytic converter that ultimately might have been stolen,” he said.
The bill’s author, Democratic state Sen.
“I’m not surprised that the auto dealers and car manufacturers would be reluctant to take on this task to support their customers — we engaged in multiple conversations with them in the last seven months. Frankly, I’m more surprised that the majority of the
Tokat, with the
Still, others see the new laws as a step in the right direction. They won’t completely “wipe out” the issue, said
Will
“I kind of think it’s appalling that the manufacturers don’t just voluntarily put the VINs on the catalytic converters because they know they’re a huge target,” said
CalMatters reached out to
Honda, which didn’t answer questions, directed CalMatters to the
The Alliance did not make anyone available for an interview but said, via a statement, “Catalytic converter theft is a major problem in
What’s a car owner to do?
There are steps motorists can take to reduce the odds their converter gets stolen, according to the
But not everyone can park on a well-lit street or in a garage, and gadgets don’t guarantee protection. Cabrera, at Art’s Automotive, says he’s seen cars with theft deterrent devices still wind up with their converters stolen.
For one driver, though, a converter shield has provided security — at least so far.
“Since then, I’ve wondered if it was the right choice,” he said. He’s become familiar with the “horrible” noise his Prius makes when it no longer has a converter.
After the part was stolen for a fourth time in
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