CARSON CITY (KTNV) — It costs car owners lots of money to fix but only takes seconds for criminals to cause the damage. Now, lawmakers say it's time to throw a cog in the wheels of catalytic converter crime. They're easy to steal, easy to sell, and there are not many consequences if you're caught. Those are the main problems Nevada lawmakers are seeking to tackle in taking on criminals who steal catalytic converters and the businesses buying them.
13 Investigates looked at the bill heard in Carson City on Thursday which is looking to put the brakes on this auto part epidemic.
Dave Gomez recently joined the ranks of thousands of Las Vegans who've fallen victim to a frustrating and expensive crime.
"I saw that somebody had completely sawed off the metal part of my connector between my muffler and my exhaust manifold," Gomez said when 13 Investigates interviewed him earlier this year about converter theft.
After paying a hefty price to fix his truck, he knew it was time for a change.
"Regulations or possibly municipality codes that will cause such a hardship on the person that does these things, that it will change how they look at it and what they do."
Nevada lawmakers agree. Thursday afternoon, the Senate Judiciary Committee began taking testimony on S.B. 243, which will target thieves and the recycling yards where they cash in on the precious metal-filled car parts.
"We've seen an increase in recent years of this theft," Metro Police Detective Chris Ries told the lawmakers. "From 2019 to 2022, catalytic converter thefts have increased over 1,200 percent. Like Senator Nguyen said, an experienced catalytic converter thief can remove a converter within minutes, with equipment easily found at a local hardware store. The cost to the victim of this crime could be thousands of dollars, not to mention the time, energy and stress it also causes. Nearly every one of your constituents has either been affected by catalytic converter theft or knows someone who has."
The new law would make it illegal for scrap yards to buy converters from most individuals. Authorized purchasers of used catalytic converters could only buy them from licensed auto wreckers, licensed scrap metal processors, or other related businesses.
The bill also increases penalties for catalytic converter theft, making it a felony, which comes with fines ranging from $1,000 to $4,000 and prison time from one to six years, which would apply to anyone who doesn't follow the law. That includes scrap yard and recycling center employees or owners who are in a better position to curb the crime than most car owners
"People were told put your cars in your garage so your catalytic converters aren't stolen," Senator Rochelle Nguyen, who is a primary sponsor of S.B. 243, said. "In my neighborhood, that's not always possible and throughout Senate District 3 that's not at all possible. In fact, I don't even have a garage to put a vehicle in. So there are a lot of thefts that take place in neighborhoods that don't have gated communities and don't have garages."
Under the new law, individual sellers would have to show documentation to prove the converter they're selling is from a car they actually own.
The bill will also allow law enforcement to presume that a person who has two or more converters stole them if that person is not part of a licensed automobile or recycling business.
Courts would be authorized to issue an injunction against an offending business, essentially shutting it down.
There's also talk about limiting cash transactions for converters, requiring a mailed check or electronic transfer instead.
In addition to individual drivers, businesses have also been targeted by thieves. Recently, the Blind Center of Nevada had catalytic converters stolen from a bus, a van, and a truck they use to pick up donations. The Oscar Meyer Wienermobile also had its catalytic converter stolen in Las Vegas. We will be sure to keep track of the bill and let you know if and when it becomes the new law on the road.
