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Why Catalatic Converter Thefts Continue to Rise

The investigation into complaints of catalytic converter thefts continues.

The Grand Traverse County Sheriff’s Office has been taking a lot of these complaints.

They’ve received 30 to 35 complaints over the past 12-months.

They say over 40 cars had converters stolen from them.

Some complaints even had converters and batteries stolen from more than one vehicle.

That doesn’t include the 12 complaints they received just over this past weekend.

These parts are being stolen because of the valuable metals that make them up and what people can do with them after stealing the converters.

“This is a typical catalytic converter, although this is a small one, this is mounted between your engine and your muffler and it’s basically in your exhaust system,” said Wayne Moody, Director of Automotive Service Technology at Northwestern Michigan College. “You’ll know that it’s gone, you’ll start it up the next morning and it will sound like a bear, because you won’t have any exhaust.”

You may still still be wondering, “where is the catalytic converter on my car?”

If you look underneath your vehicle, it’s a metal pipe-shaped piece and many thieves will reach down underneath and saw it off.

“A catalytic converter can be worth as scrap metal, anywhere from $75 dollars to up to $600 or $700 dollars, sometimes even more—it’s very little risk for a large gain,” said Moody.

The Grand Traverse County Sheriff’s Office say the calls of converter thefts are becoming way too common.

“With the catalytic converters, basically a lot of it is tied to the materials that are used to make up the catalytic converters and those are quite valuable at this time, therefore we’re seeing a lot of catalytic converter thefts,” said Grand Traverse County Capt. Randy Fewless.

Depending on your vehicle, replacing these stolen parts can be more expensive than your realize.

“On the average, a catalytic converter replacement on a vehicle could run $500 dollars to over $2,000 dollars,” said Moody.

With the way they can be easily stolen and sold, the fear is these thefts will continue happening.

“I think it’s going to get worse because the prices of these metals are going to only go up and I’m hoping there will be some legislation and laws in place to puts some checks and balances and IDs on where these components are coming from,” said Moody.

The Grand Traverse County Sheriff’s Office says they don’t have any leads on who is behind these thefts right now, but if you have any information, they ask you to give them a call.

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