OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — Picture the sound of a saw on hard metal, that is the sound of a catalytic converter being sawed off and stolen. It's a process that Jim Sargent, owner of Ace Mufflers in Omaha, said can take less than 30 seconds if the blade is sharp and the battery is charged.
Based on the way it is cut, "it makes it obvious, oh yeah it's stolen," Sargent said.
In his ten years of owning his under-car specialty company, Sargent said he's never seen catalytic converter replacements in such high demand.
"I noticed it when COVID started," Sargent said. "Somehow the word got out and it was like ok easy money right."
Sargent said he used to rarely receive requests for those repairs, now it's about ten per week.
"It is just coming in left and right, 'Hey my converter was stolen, ugh here we go again,'" Sargent said.
What is a catalytic converter? Sargent said in simple terms it's a furnace under your car. But for it to work properly it contains two precious metals, platinum and rhodium.
"There are a few vehicles out there that have a lot of that stuff in there and these converters in the scrap industry can be worth anywhere from 800 to 1,000 dollars," Sargent said.
Sargent said some cars are targeted more than others.
"As soon as you start your vehicle up, a stolen cat, you are going to know right away, your car is going to sound like something off of NASCAR," Sargent said.
And they damage other parts, when they cut out the catalytic converters, too.
"They are cutting all kinds of stuff because they don't care, they are just getting this thing out of here so they can get their money," Sargent said.
But can you protect yours from being stolen? Sargent has a method of marking your converter.
"For instance either your last name or the license plate number on the converter I can weld it on there," Sargent said.
He replaces the factory model converters with after-market converters. He said they do the same thing, just contain less of the precious metals.
"The after-market converters are not worth anything in the scrap world, maybe $20, compared $500 to $1,000," Sargent said.
Stopping thieves and saving customers between $300 and $500.
"I try to keep everything as cheap as I can for the customer because I hate making money off of people's misfortunes," Sargent said.
In 2022, Omaha police received 1,368 reports of catalytic converter thefts. That is up from 1,217 the year before. Omaha police said the ordinance put in place in March of 2022, to help level out the number of thefts, has been helping. They are seeing those who are committing the crimes, receiving higher bond amounts and bigger sentences.
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