A huge increase in thefts of catalytic converters has hit the nation, for at least the second time this century. Thieves are sliding under cars and trucks and brazenly sawing off converters by the thousands. The attraction is the valuable metals inside the converter, an anti-pollution device.
One of many cities reporting an upswing in the crime is Milwaukee, where Ben Wilson recently stepped outside his house and made a troubling discovery about a family car. I woke up in the morning and was moving my wife s Honda Element out of the driveway. And when I turned it on, it made an incredibly loud sound, Wilson says.
/
A huge increase in thefts of catalytic converters has hit the nation, for at least the second time this century. Thieves are sliding under cars and trucks and brazenly sawing off converters by the thousands. The attraction is the valuable metals inside the converter, an anti-pollution device.
One of many cities reporting an upswing in the crime is Milwaukee, where Ben Wilson recently stepped outside his house and made a troubling discovery about a family car. I woke up in the morning and was moving my wife s Honda Element out of the driveway. And when I turned it on, it made an incredibly loud sound, Wilson says.
A bin full of discarded catalytic converters at AB CatTech in Burlington, WI.
A huge increase in thefts of catalytic converters has hit Milwaukee and the nation. Thieves are sliding under cars and trucks and brazenly sawing off converters by the thousands. The attraction is the valuable metals inside the converter, an anti-pollution device.
Imagine stepping outside your home and making a troubling discovery about a family car. That s what happened on a recent day to Milwaukee resident Ben Wilson. I woke up in the morning and was moving my wife s Honda Element out of the driveway. And when I turned it on, it made an incredibly loud sound, he says.
Verna Taylor always took good care of her 2004 Toyota Sequoia, so when she cranked up her truck one morning to run errands, she knew the loud sound she heard wasn’t normal and drove straight to a nearby muffler shop.
“My truck sounded like a loud tractor or something,” Taylor said.
When the muffler shop hoisted the Sequoia on the lift, the mechanic quickly spotted the problem.
“Someone cut my catalytic converter, Taylor said. I didn’t even know what a catalytic converter was before this.”
The bigger surprise: a $1,500 price tag to fix it.
While Milwaukee police don’t break out stolen catalytic converters by category, they say stolen car parts of which catalytic converters are the main target are up significantly this year. As of April 11, there have been 497 “stolen car parts” reported, up 19% from the same time last year.