Catalytic converter thefts on rise

You know it's going to be a bad night when the security guard walks into your work and asks if a car in the parking lot is yours.

That's exactly what happened to Sarah Ellis Sept. 4 as she was preparing to close up at The Gap in the Casa Paloma shopping center at 7131 W. Ray Road.

Apparently a couple of thieves, in front of shoppers and motorists, crawled under her Toyota 4Runner, hacked loose the catalytic converter, tossed it in their car and drove away before anyone could get a license plate number.

Her only comfort in the whole ordeal is that she isn't alone.

"Every day, in the city of Phoenix, 30 to 40 are stolen," said Sgt. Tommy Thompson, a spokesman for the Phoenix Police Department.

And catalytic converter thefts aren't limited to shopping center parking lots.

In Ahwatukee Foothills catalytic converter thefts are also on the rise, with one yanked out of a vehicle near 43rd Place and Thistle Landing in July and another in August, south of Chandler Boulevard near 40th Street. In both cases the thefts occurred at night to vehicles that parked in a driveway or on the street.

Catalytic converters have been around for 30 years, but they have drawn the attention of thieves because each one can bring in from $25 to $160 at a metal recycling center, thanks to the precious metals inside, and because the converters themselves can be worth $200 on the auto parts black-market.

But Ellis, who lives in Ahwatukee Foothills, and her insurance company are now out around $2,500 to fix the damage caused by the hack and grab thieves.

So what can you do?

Experts are split, with some saying park in an open area, so that an attempted theft will be seen and the bad guys deterred.

But that didn't help Ellis.

"I just parked in the middle of the parking lot, halfway between the store and Buca de Beppo," she said.

Others say park where your car is sandwiched, between curbs and other cars, so there isn't room for a thief to work and they will move on to an easier target.

But, ultimately, police say the solution will be laws with more teeth.

The current law says that people who bring in metal to recycle must show identification and transactions over $25 require a fingerprint. While that helps to identify the person who brought in the recycling, it is often difficult to identify stolen copper wire from legitimate copper recycling. The same for a catalytic converter that could legitimately come from a junk yard versus one from a vehicle in a shopping center.