Champaign County Crime Stoppers has reached out to the community for help with the regular thefts of catalytic converters from parked cars in the area. From the News-Gazette this week:
Champaign County Crime Stoppers needs the public’s help finding thieves taking catalytic converters off vehicles.
Since January 2021, about 288 of the emissions-control devices have been stolen from vehicles at several locations throughout the county.
At more than one location, a suspect vehicle and two suspects were captured on surveillance video.
That full article here. More information at the local Crime Stoppers website here and specifically on the catalytic converter theft in their "Crime of the Week" post here. WCIA had similar coverage along with a list of ways to potentially deter these kind of thefts here.
A local catalytic converter theft victim has begun a data project attempting to track the local thefts. From WCIA:
“I believe that we have fantastic civil servants doing amazing work for us here in Champaign and Urbana. I don’t want them to think that they’re being besmirched in any way by this work,” Martin said. “But I think it’s important for us as residents to be able to collect our own data and to see what’s going on ourselves.”
Martin hopes to use the information to create a map of thefts and identify patterns.
That full article here. His appeal for crime data is available at the private Spotted in Champaign facebook group here.
The News-Gazette's Tom Kacich had an overview of the problem in a recent Tom's Mailbag column:
It's illegal in Illinois for a recyclable metal dealer to purchase a catalytic converter not attached to a car unless the seller is licensed as an automotive parts recycler or a scrap processor.
That said, there are "amateur recyclers" who will attempt to process the catalytic converters and sell the valuable metal — palladium, platinum and rhodium — to legal and illegal buyers, said Tom Yelich, spokesman for the Champaign Police Department.
He suggested a few ways to attempt to deter catalytic converter thieves...
That full Mailbag article here. Illinois Newsroom also looked at the market for stolen catalytic converters or the materials within them:
Scrap yards are wary of taking catalytic converters. And there’s no evidence yet of a local black market, according to University of Illinois Police Department spokesperson Patrick Wade.
“In Champaign-Urbana, if you take it to a scrap yard, you can get maybe $10 or $20 for a catalytic converter, so [the value] is not very high,” Wade says.
Scrap yards out of town offer more — $50 or $60, Wade estimates.
More information at that full article here.
The News-Gazette also had an article this month on the costs and complications for victims of these thefts a couple weeks ago as well:
She is one of many victims of catalytic-converter theft or damage in Champaign County’s latest wave of annoying crimes. Police reports suggest it’s been going on for several months.
The appeal to thieves of the emissions-control devices that have been standard in gas-powered engines since 1975 is not new...
Supply-chain logistics are making it difficult for the Toyota dealer to get parts from the factory, so that means Shaw’s business for installing after-market converters is brisk.
That full article here.
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