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ONE SIGN of a criminal offense’s prevalence is when even cops fall sufferer to it. So it goes with the spike within the theft of catalytic converters, a part hooked up to a car’s underbelly that helps course of and management gas emissions. In September thieves sawed-off catalytic converters from 4 vans and vans owned by the San Francisco Police Division, which had been parked outdoors a “particular operations” bureau. Earlier this yr, an off-duty sheriff’s deputy was shot lifeless in Houston when he tried to cease thieves stealing his truck’s catalytic converter.
It doesn’t take a detective to piece collectively what’s going on. Nationally, the theft of catalytic converters has rocketed, changing into one in every of America’s fastest-growing crimes. Information from this yr will not be but accessible, however are more likely to present converter theft at document highs. In 2021 the Nationwide Insurance coverage Crime Bureau, a non-profit that combats insurance coverage fraud, tracked greater than 52,000 reported incidents, about 13 occasions greater than in 2019. The entire might be a lot greater.
The primary motive for the spike is the rising worth of treasured metals which might be contained in catalytic converters, together with rhodium, whose value per ounce has quadrupled since January 2019 (see chart). It solely takes a couple of minutes to take away a converter, and has been made less complicated due to stronger battery-operated saws which might be in the marketplace, says Chris Crabtree, a retired police officer with Oakland Police Division. The covid-induced decline of tourism in city centres additionally inspired thieves to shift from stealing issues inside automobiles to stealing bits of automobiles as a substitute.
It’s each unlawful and loud to drive a automobile with out a catalytic converter, however changing a stolen one prices from a couple of hundred to a number of thousand {dollars}. Some victims are putting in cages round their converters to make them tougher to steal. In a merciless twist, the climate-conscious are punished most frequently. Hybrid autos typically have two catalytic converters and might comprise extra treasured metals, which has led to Priuses and different hybrid automobiles being focused extra continuously. Hardest-hit has been California, which has a couple of quarter of the nation’s hybrid automobiles and more durable emissions requirements (contributing to most automobiles, not simply hybrids, bought within the state containing extra treasured metals of their converters). In 2021 the Golden State accounted for 37% of catalytic-converter thefts.
These thefts are not less than considerably organised. In November the Division of Justice charged 21 folks in 5 states as a part of a catalytic-converter theft ring. Folks bought stolen converters to an auto store in New Jersey, which in flip bought the extracted metallic powders to a refinery for practically $550m. This yr not less than 22 states handed laws, up from the dozen that did so in 2021, says Amanda Essex of the Nationwide Convention of State Legislatures. The options run the gamut, from requiring new guidelines and documentation to promote catalytic converters to rising the penalties related to their theft.
Some states, resembling Maine, have began requiring automobile sellers to engrave identification numbers on catalytic converters. This makes it simpler to hint them and show that they’ve been stolen. In California two new legal guidelines, together with rules about who can promote them, will go into impact in January. A proposal to require identification numbers to be etched on converters was defeated after lobbying from automobile sellers, who mentioned it might be costly. However with out ID numbers, it may be troublesome to show past an affordable doubt that somebody in possession of catalytic converters has stolen them, says Gregory Totten, chief government of the California District Attorneys Affiliation.
Regardless of the flurry of recent legal guidelines, the thieving continues. A legislation in Texas handed final yr locations some restrictions on the sale of catalytic converters and will increase the punishment, so now thieves steal them in Texas however promote them in states the place gross sales restrictions are looser. “Maybe at its core, it’s a nationwide situation,” says Mr Totten, who thinks the federal authorities must become involved. One proposed invoice, known as the Stopping Auto Recycling Theft (PART) Act, would require identification numbers to be etched on converters and set up stealing them as a federal offence. Already the invoice enjoys bipartisan help, suggesting that converter theft might make for some hybrid political alliances.■
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