How can you prevent catalytic converter theft?
Washington, Colorado, Texas, Arizona, Nevada, Florida, Oklahoma, New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut have seen a major spike in catalytic converter (CC) theft according to various sources like PropertyCasualty360.com. Thefts are happening both in daytime and nighttime, and are taking place on personal and business property, as well as public property.
According to BeenVerified.com, CC theft has increased an average of about 353% countrywide in 2021 compared to 2020, and it looks like the trend is going to continue spiking in 2022 based on recent reports from newspapers like The Seattle Times. The profit that thieves are getting from pawning these metals are nothing compared to the damage costs, says the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB). The Seattle Times says profits are about 1/10 of repair costs.
If an owner gets “lucky” and the thief who vandalized their car was car-savvy, and thus did not do additional damage to their car, a simple CC replacement cost for labor and the part can still significantly exceed the pawning cost by hundreds to thousands of dollars. Keep in mind that many newer cars will not start and therefore cannot be driven at all without a CC, and some older vehicles can become unsafe to drive without them even if they do start. (You never know what a thief might have damaged in the process.) The NICB states that many replacement costs are coming in at thousands of dollars. What can you do to protect yourself?
What Are Some Catalytic Converter Theft Prevention Steps?
1. Make sure that you have a car insurance policy that can help you if your CC is stolen.
- Typically damages like this are covered by comprehensive auto insurance, which is a type of coverage that helps pay to repair or replace your vehicle if it is stolen, or something other than a collision results in it being damaged.
- Consider also including rental car reimbursement. After your car is stolen or damaged, the last thing you want to deal with is the stress of finding and affording a rental car to use in the meantime. Rental cars can easily cost you hundreds of dollars in a single week. Rental car reimbursement coverage helps pay for a rental car during a covered claim and having it can also unlock the resource of where you can get a rental car ASAP.
- Also consider adding towing on your auto policy. Towing bills can be very expensive, and you have enough expenses to worry about right now. (AAA can be a helpful alternative.)
- This might be a good time to also look into full coverage.
- What does it mean to have full coverage insurance? Full coverage is when you have both comprehensive coverage and collision coverage. In other words, when you have full coverage, you have all the main parts of your car insurance covered. Full coverage commonly includes personal injury protection (PIP), underinsured motorist, and uninsured motorist, alongside comp and collision. (Different factors can determine exactly what is covered, including the state you live in, your carrier, the options you chose, etc. For example, PIP is not currently available in the state of Alaska.)
- Increasing your claim limit is always a good thing to consider multiple times throughout the year. If you had some recent life changes like purchasing a new car or adding a new driver, talk to your agent right away about your claim limits and seeing if they fit your current lifestyle.
- Think about what type of car you have. If you are driving something like a new Tesla, or you own a fully restored 1950s Mustang, you are most likely going to want more than average coverage. For financial safety, a good practice is to have your insurance match the car. Look into the car(s) that you have and what it would cost if your CC was stolen with and without extra damage.
- Think about how many cars you have. (Thieves have been known to steal CCs off every car in a driveway. Even if you own inexpensive commuter cars, that can be super costly as it adds up. (For example, in current day an early 1990s small commuter car can easily cost you $500 in Washington’s Snohomish County area for a simple converter replacement with no extra damage to other surrounding parts.)
- Talk to your Mosaic agent about what would be a stable insurance option for you based on your current financial needs and situation.
2. Be mindful where and when you park your car.
- Try to park your car in well-populated and well-lit areas.
- Try to avoid public parking for long periods of time whenever you can.
- Try to avoid unfamiliar parking areas, especially at night and for long periods of time.
- Parking in front of windows is usually a good idea since windows can mean witnesses nearby, and criminals like to avoid the possibility of those as much as possible.
- When parking in parking garages, TheJoltNews.com recommends that you park near entrances or places with higher traffic.
- Steer clear of high crime areas whenever you can.
- Park your car in locked garages whenever you can.
- When parking, consider that places with security guards and/or security cameras tend to be safer.
- If you drive a vehicle that is commonly targeted, Patch.com recommends “parking defensively.” By that, they mean parking near less-targeted cars like those lower to the ground so that your car would be harder for thieves to access.
3. Have a working car alarm.
- Thieves have to get under your car, so a well-working alarm is likely to initiate—and hopefully scare them off—before they can steal what they came for.
- If your car alarm is working, but is not very sensitive, you might want to have it inspected to see if something needs to be repaired or reset. You might also want to consider an upgrade.
- Consider an upgrade if you like phone alerts. There are some car alarms that will alert your phone if they engage.
- Just because your car is older doesn’t mean that it cannot get an upgrade. Also, even if your car has never had an alarm before, you can still get one installed.
4. Install proof-of-crime security measures.
- Motion activated cameras outside your home/business can lead to a future arrest.
- Your phone can also get camera alerts and you can get cameras that have intercoms. These features can help bring attention to the issue so that you can intercept it safely. (Be extremely cautious around criminals. For example, make noise from a distance or call the police.)
- Also, there have been engraving events like this one in Everett, WA where owners can give their CCs serial numbers so that when thieves go to recycle them, they have a higher chance of not making a sale with a reputable metal recycler and/or getting caught (like with a stolen credit card).
- You can also install anti-theft devices on the CC itself, which are extra installments that make it more difficult to remove (and take a lot longer). Here is an example of one.
- Some people have also painted their CCs so that it will help a thief get caught when they go to cash in, or to deter the thief from carrying out the act in the first place when they see that it is boldly painted.
5. Be educated.
- Different cars tend to be targeted. You can see some common at-risks cars here. Since you have to get under the car to remove the CC, criminals tend to target vehicles that do not need car jacks to crawl under so that it is faster and less obvious to passerby. This means that SUVS, trucks, vans, hybrids, and cars that are higher off the ground tend to be targeted. A common vehicle to be targeted is a Toyota Prius since they are (1) not super low to the ground, and (2) they are a low-emissions vehicle, and thus their CCs contain larger amounts of precious metals. More precious metals mean a higher payout for the thief (and larger bill for you).
- However, keep in mind that converters vary in worth across cars, so there could be criminals targeting expensive CCs even if the cars are not close to the ground. For example, if it is 2 am in the morning, a thief might think that they have plenty of time to raise your Ferrari with a car jack and get the CC.
- Replacement/repair costs vary significantly between make/year/model. It is good to know what it could cost you if it happens to you. You can call local mechanics who do the repairs and get price estimates for simple replacements based on your exact car. This would also be a good time to ask them about the additional damages that they have repaired on cars with stolen CCs. You can also ask them for a ballpark range if your car sees similar excess damage. For example, the thief might have cut your O2 sensor out when they stole your CC. If that happens, you are paying for a new O2 sensor, the CC, the O2 sensor wiring, and who knows what else that also got damaged in the process. While estimations of course are not exact, it will at least give you an idea if it is something that is usually around $500 for your car, or more commonly over $1000.
- Look into what cities and counties are being targeted—are any in or near the places that you live, drive, and/or park? To help you find the answer, you can go to a search engine like Google or Bing, and type in something like: “common [state] cities with catalytic converter theft.”
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