Valuable, vulnerable: SC thieves are stealing cars’ catalytic converters

Thieves around the Columbia area and the state are stealing a valuable piece of equipment from your car’s underbelly — a gadget called a catalytic converter.

“Catalytic converter thefts are out of control,” said Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott. “It’s not a sexy crime that gets a lot of attention, but it’s very damaging to those who get one stolen. It can cost thousands of dollars to get your car repaired.”

Catalytic converters, metal gizmos located under the car between the muffler and the motor, are used to scrub pollutants from a car’s exhaust gases. Among the materials that are used to do that are metals as precious as gold, such as platinum, palladium and rhodium.

In recent months, dozens and dozens of catalytic converters have been stolen in the Midlands — in Columbia and in Richland, Lexington, Kershaw and Orangeburg counties and other places around the state.

Toyota Priuses are a main target, said Columbia police master police officer Mason Frier in the department’s southeastern response team, which covers neighborhoods such as Shandon, Rosewood, Old Shandon and down Devine Street to Garners Ferry Road.

“They aren’t just targeting Priuses — you’re seeing them taking catalytic converters from trucks, from Kias, from Mazdas, from every make and model,” Frier said.

With the right type of specialized equipment, a thief can crawl under a vehicle and strip off a catalytic converter in a matter of minutes, Frier said.

Many catalytic converters are stolen at night from homes. But they are also stolen from vehicles at churches, business parking lots and cars on the sides of interstates, police say.

“The thieves will go through some of our car lots, and they may take five or 10 in one night,” said Kershaw County Sheriff Lee Boan.

Car lots are an especially inviting target. In December, thieves stole 17 catalytic converters worth $34,000 from an Orangeburg Toyota dealership, according to the Times & Democrat newspaper.

Not all thefts are at night.

Thieves have also stolen catalytic converters in broad daylight from cars at boat landings on Lake Wateree while people are out boating on the lake, Boan said. “It’s everywhere.”

If it’s any comfort, South Carolina’s catalytic converter victims are not alone.

“Thieves Nationwide Are Slithering Under Cars, Swiping Catalytic Converters,” read a front-page headline in a New York Times this week over an in-depth story about the theft phenomenon sweeping the country.

Catalytic converters are “shiny bulbous contraptions” required in all gasoline cars and trucks sold in the United States since 1975, The Times reported. The precious metals in the catalytic converter are in the device’s “honeycomb-like interior,” which is coated with precious metals that scrub toxic pollutants from exhaust gases, the paper wrote.

A stolen catalytic converter means a whopping repair bill.

“Even a refurbished (catalytic converter) for a 20-year-old Volvo can run $500. New factory cats are usually $1,000 minimum. Add at least an hour of labor, and you’re looking at a big bill—or risk your car being undriveable and awfully smelly,” said a December Car and Driver magazine article.

Then there’s the ear-jarring noise from a car without a catalytic converter.

“It’s going to sound like a lawn mower, a loud lawn mower,” said Columbia police officer Frier. “You’ll know it as soon as you crank it — like a car with no muffler.”

There is also psychological fallout —processing the anger, shame and angst that comes from being victimized by a sneaky thief and losing time from having to get a new catalytic converter.

“It’s a big day; my Prius has finally joined the coveted ‘Stolen Catalytic Converter’ Club!” posted a member of a Rosewood neighborhood Facebook group. “I can’t say I’ve enjoyed membership thus far.” That post was “liked” by 58 people, who were expressing sympathy.

Lott said he’s working with Rep. Todd Rutherford, D-Richland, who is drawing up a bill to cut down to stop catalytic converter thefts. It is modeled on a 2011 S.C. law that put restrictions on people selling metals to scrap dealers. That bill, although critics said it could have been tougher, led to a drop in copper thefts around the state. Thieves had been smashing expensive HVAC systems to get at the copper wiring inside. At that time, copper brought high prices from scrap yards.

“The bill we’re proposing will stop these thefts overnight,” said Lott, explaining it would put restrictions on who can buy and sell catalytic converters.

Other states — including Minnesota and North Carolina — already have laws making it harder to steal catalytic converters, Lott said.

Rutherford on Friday confirmed he will be working with Lott and trying to get it before the full 124-member House as soon as possible.

“When it gets to the point where people are sliding under cars at night and stealing catalytic converters that cost owners thousands of dollars to replace, we’ve got to fix it,” Rutherford said.

Not all the alleged thieves get away.

In late January, Lexington County sheriff’s deputies arrested arrested three Columbia residents after finding catalytic converters and tools commonly used to remove the car parts during a traffic stop near Lake Murray.

The three men, all in their 20s, were charged with transporting nonferrous metals and various other offenses, according to a department press release. Charges are pending.

“While this is a significant arrest in our effort to reduce these thefts, there are more cases out there and locations across the county being hit,” Koon said. “It’s easy to slide under a car, make the cuts and take the parts to certain scrapyards for quick cash.”

From July through December in Lexington County last year, 144 catalytic converter thefts were reported. For the same time period in the previous year, the department had only 55 catalytic converter thefts.

To fight the thefts, Lexington County sheriff’s department Capt. Adam Myrick said deputies are stepping up patrols, working with scrap yards, educating citizens about the problem. “We’re in response mode on this.”

Police give this advice:

▪ Put light and surveillance cameras on your car at night.

▪ Explore putting a metal cage over your converter or fastening it more securely.

▪ Engrave identification numbers such as a license tag number on the converter.

▪ Report suspicious cars in your neighborhood and the theft to your local law enforcement.

This story was originally published February 14, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Valuable, vulnerable: SC thieves are stealing cars’ catalytic converters."