An Exhausting New Crime

Platinum prices aren't expected to plummet soon, and experts offer few solutions to the rising thefts. Still, vehicle owners should park in well-lighted, patrolled lots and keep the car in a garage at home, some cops say. Spot welding can stop thieves who detach the converters with wrenches. But the problem still hasn't grown large enough for automakers to offer new security protections, according to Karl Brauer, editor in chief of the auto Web site Edmunds.com. "It'll take a certain amount of reaction from the public," Brauer says.

An Akron, Ohio, welding shop hasn't waited. American Welding now sells a steel cage called a "Catclamp," a device for cars and trucks that encases the converter, which was first developed last year for rental trucks, says the company's James Dusa. "The phone is ringing off the hook," says Dusa.

Another solution: strike at unscrupulous salvage-lot owners who knowingly buy converters from walk-in customers who aren't in the car business, says AAA's Nielson. "As long as there's someone willing to pay for it, someone will steal it," he says. In the wake of nationwide copper thefts from construction sites, some states passed laws requiring anyone recycling material to show an ID, and some localities have ordinances requiring sellers to show identification or receive payment by check--the same rules that govern pawn shops.

But police in Stockton, Calif., took more direct measures. After citizens reported 325 converter thefts by October of last year, and arrested thieves said they'd sold their stolen goods to a shop in nearby Manteca, detectives gave the store's owners a warning. But reports of further sales continued, so undercover officers posing as converter thieves showed up offered to sell the store devices they allegedly said had been stolen. Manager Dorene Carlson, 44, allegedly bought not only the converters, but, police say, told them "what models she'd pay more for," says Stockton P.D. Det. Roseann Clark. After two more undercover sales, Stockton cops brought along the media on Oct. 25--and arrested Carlson. She pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempted receiving of stolen property, but faces a preliminary hearing Wednesday. But in the months since the highly publicized arrest, converter thefts in Stockton have only dropped slightly. Police clearly have their work cut out for them.

© 2008