Walker County Dealing With Catalytic Converter Thefts

Mark Motley has had his used car dealership open on Highway 27 in Walker County less than a month.

And only one week into his business opening, he says he came into work to find the catalytic converters missing from his used cars.

"There were 6 missing in one night," he says. "From what I gather, it's been going on in the county for a couple of months now, hitting all the different places."

And he's right.

We checked with dealerships and repair shops along Highway 27, and many have stories of catalytic converter thefts.

"It's pretty much become a nationwide epidemic. We're just experiencing our part of it. It's really a smaller subset of the bigger metal theft problem," says Walker County Sheriff's Detective Mike Hunch.

Hinch says thieves are going after them for the precious metals--platinum, palladium, and rhodium--some of which can yield a lot of money for the right amount.

"Platinum at the end of June was selling for around $2,000 an ounce, so it doesn't take much of that to make it worthwhile to steal one of these, he says."

The owner of Spicers Automotive wouldn't go on camera but he was more than happy to show us what the cataltyic converter thieves have done. In fact, he says--in one night, they took 12 converters.

The converters are meant to reduce emissions and make for a quieter ride for your car.

But thieves are using them to get a couple of hundred bucks for each one they steal.

Motley says one theft was enough. "I have been watching. I've put up security cameras, I've got the law coming by checking and they've been good about that. I've come by at night and they've checked to make sure who i was," he says.

The Sheriff's Department says there have been no thefts in over a week, and many are hoping the thieves don't return.

Hinch says that generally, felony theft is for any item over 5-hundred dollars.

However, since thieves are taking catalytic converters from a car, it's considered a felony.

Hinch adds they are looking at suspects, but no arrests have yet been made.