ST. LOUIS — The number of catalytic converter thefts is declining across the Ƶ region after a yearslong surge, according to local police departments.
Thefts of the device, key for controlling a vehicle’s pollution, surged in recent years because of the resale value of the precious metals inside.
Drivers often don’t realize their catalytic converter is gone until the next time they try to drive, and repairs can cost thousands of dollars.
But the trend has reversed this year, as local police departments have seen year-over-year declines in theft of the part ranging from 30% to 70%.
The exact causes are difficult to pinpoint, but officials have a few theories.
One is that a crackdown on serial catalytic converter snatchers — and new state laws that carry harsher penalties for offenders — may be starting to make a dent.
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And the increased penalties don’t just focus on thieves, said. Lt. Matt Moore, of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.
“Recently, there has been a regional effort to conduct investigations at scrap yards,” he said in a written statement to the Post-Dispatch. The effort is aimed at the buyer’s “complicity in purchasing ambiguously obtained catalytic converters,” he said.
Moore said detectives have worked with prosecutors and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources to investigate several scrap yards, including one in Cedar Hill that is now shuttered. In St. Charles, detectives investigated a scrap yard in Byrnes Mill, also prompting that spot to close, he said.
Sgt. Tracy Panus, with Ƶ County police, said efforts from detectives there have focused on big “takedowns” of rings of thieves who were selling large amounts of catalytic converters.
And, perhaps most importantly, catalytic converters aren’t worth what they used to be. The thefts first surged a few years ago when prices increased for the precious metals found at the core of the devices.
Prices of platinum, palladium and rhodium, compounded by supply constraints during the COVID-19 pandemic, have largely taken the blame for the initial surge.
But those prices have come back to earth, and theft rates have come with them.
In Ƶ County, reported catalytic converter rates dropped by 64% — from 509 instances to 184 — through the end of October compared with the same period one year earlier.
The same is true in Jefferson County, where thefts decreased about 70% from last year.
Ƶ police don’t track the theft of catalytic converters specifically, but thefts of motor vehicle parts dropped more than 30% through the end of November, from 2,453 at its recent peak last year to 1,640 crimes this year.
And the Ƶ area isn’t alone. State Farm Insurance showing that claims from customers for catalytic converter theft dropped about 37% nationwide in the first half of the year compared with the same period in 2022.
Locally, both Moore and Panus credited the changes to state law as another possible driver of the decline.
The Missouri legislature passed a law that beginning in August 2021 made possession of a stolen catalytic converter a class E felony. The law also imposed new restrictions on buyers, including waiting periods before a catalytic converter could be melted down, and new requirements for how to record purchases of the device.
Just this year, 21 states have followed suit and enacted laws of their own to more tightly regulate the possession of sale of catalytic converters, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau.
“We may be seeing the residual results of new laws taking effect and offenders facing a more serious punishment,” Moore said.