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Sep 15, 2023

Catalytic converter thefts lead to long waits for Prius part

The first time someone stole the catalytic converter from artist Naomi Hummel’s

The first time someone stole the catalytic converter from artist Naomi Hummel's 2007 Prius was in Seattle in 2020. A mechanic installed a replacement the next day.

Earlier this year, thieves sawed off the replacement while her car was parked in the Fruitvale BART Station parking garage near her Oakland home. Hummel put an insurance payout toward a 2015 Prius — but within months, thieves crawled underneath and snagged her new car's catalytic converter, too. Now, two months later, Hummel is still waiting for a replacement, as astronomical theft rates drive a nationwide shortage of the part she needs.

An average of 1,600 times a month, thieves use handheld power saws to cut catalytic converters from the undersides of cars and trucks across California, including ones parked everywhere from private driveways to secured parking lots. The crime takes just a few minutes for practiced thieves, who are motivated by skyrocketing prices for the precious metals contained within. Even paratransit vehicles and San Francisco police cars have fallen prey to the gold rush.

These thefts have led to widespread backorders for certain models of catalytic converters, including third-generation Priuses and new generation Toyota Tacoma trucks. But it's illegal under both federal and state law — not to mention dangerous and incredibly loud — to drive a car without a catalytic converter. That's created a serious problem for people like Hummel, who rely on their cars to get to work.

In interviews with nearly a dozen people who have been victims of catalytic converter theft, as well as local mechanics, dealerships, insurance companies and police, SFGATE discovered that people are dealing with the shortage in all kinds of ways: borrowing family cars, sinking their savings into ride-hailing apps, scouring the internet for third-party converters and just driving without one. Some have even opted for black-market solutions to muffle the unmistakable racket of a cat-free car — which may help them get to work quietly, but leaves them with vehicles that would never pass a California smog test.

A brand new catalytic converter sits on the floor at Johnny Franklin's Muffler on July 11, 2022, in San Rafael, Calif.

Hummel, a working artist, relies on her car to get to face-painting gigs at children's birthday parties, which make up the bulk of her income. Her car insurance — which she's still paying for, even though her car is undrivable — won't cover the cost of a rental car; when she can't borrow a friend's car, she's often stuck paying for a Lyft.

"It's already like a Herculean task to just get by as an artist in the Bay Area," she said. "You can get by for a few weeks without a car, but then it's a few months, and it's financially devastating. ... It's one of those things that's making me not want to be in this area anymore."

Catalytic converters work like tiny processing plants for pollutant-filled exhaust. They sit between vehicles’ engines and mufflers, taking in dirty air and shooting out water vapor and other less-harmful gases through cars’ tailpipes. Their insides are lined with platinum, rhodium and palladium, precious metals that speed up the chemical reactions.

Thieves are after those precious metals, which have skyrocketed in value in recent years, in part due to increased demand from China, which is tightening emissions standards on cars. Four years ago, an ounce of rhodium was worth about $2,000; today, it's worth more than $12,000, according to precious metals seller KITCO. The price of palladium, too, has shot up from about $1,000 an ounce four years ago, reaching nearly $3,000 last spring before dipping to about $2,000 today.

A close look at a catalytic converter, the auto part thieves are stealing from cars across the country.

Nationwide, catalytic converter theft shot up nearly 4,000% between 2018 and 2021, from 1,298 thefts to 52,206, according to claims data from the National Insurance Crime Bureau shared by Cal Matters. But converters in California are especially ripe targets for thieves: The California Air Resources Board has even more stringent emissions standards than the federal Environmental Protection Agency, meaning converters here tend to contain more precious metals. Indeed, the state now accounts for 37% of all insurance claims for stolen converters, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. And when they’re stolen, they can only be replaced with converters that will pass California smog tests, leaving California-approved parts in even shorter supply.

A productive thief can steal 10 to 15 converters in a single day, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, cutting them out from cars’ exhaust systems and selling them for several hundred dollars each to scrapyards and recyclers that harvest and sell the metals. Such crime rings can pull in huge amounts of money.

A few weeks ago, federal investigators alleged that a New Jersey company called DG Auto made $545 million buying stolen catalytic converters from across the country and selling the extracted metals to refineries. Three men in Sacramento were arrested as part of the bust and have been accused of selling stolen parts to DG Auto for an estimated $38 million.

Certain cars have long been targeted for catalytic converter theft. Converters in Priuses, for instance, are easy for thieves to access, and tend to contain greater quantities of harvestable metal. Moses Haro, owner of East Bay Mufflers in Oakland, was used to seeing occasional Priuses come into his family's shop with the devices hacked off.

Lately, though, the number of people needing new converters has shot up — and the thieves aren't sticking to Priuses anymore.

"Now, it's like everything they can get their hands on," Haro told SFGATE. "Anything that can be cut off, they’re going for."

Luis Benitez welds a new catalytic converter onto a Chevrolet Silverado at Johnny Franklin's Muffler on July 11, 2022, in San Rafael, Calif.

The problem is only getting worse, according to Jiacomo Rodriguez of Precision Auto in San Francisco.

"I’ve had customers who’ve had them stolen four or five times," he told SFGATE. "I’ve heard many stories … scary ones where people went outside to chase the thieves down and guys were there with guns. Most times it's when our heads are on the pillows and we don't hear it or see it."

Converter thefts "have been occurring more frequently over the past several months in Oakland and throughout the Bay Area," according to Oakland Police Department spokesperson Darryl Rodgers. "It doesn't appear to be isolated to a specific area of the city, as we are receiving reports from victims throughout Oakland."

Deputy Jaime Moran, right, from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, speaks with a driver as a fellow officer checks the location of the catalytic converter beneath the vehicle for engraving with a traceable number, on July 14, 2021, in City of Industry, Calif.

San Francisco, too, has seen a sharp local increase, according to data the SFPD shared with SFGATE: 213 converters were reported stolen in 2020; the next year, the number increased to 377. In just the first nine months of 2022, the department recorded 1,007 catalytic converter thefts, particularly in the Sunset District and in Ingleside Station's police district, which covers multiple neighborhoods in southern San Francisco, including Visitacion Valley, the Excelsior and parts of the Mission and Noe Valley.

SF resident Chris Colin lives in Bernal Heights, a neighborhood under the jurisdiction of the Ingleside Station. The first time the converter was stolen from his 2006 Prius, he installed a protective cage around the device, hoping it would keep thieves at bay, and aimed to park his car under a street light. But it was futile; thieves got to his replacement again last month.

"​​It was like watching this thing come at you in slow motion and there's nothing you can do about it," Colin told SFGATE.

Colin was lucky; his mechanic replaced the part within a few weeks. But many people are being forced to wait much longer. Rodriguez of Precision Auto said getting a replacement part for a customer can take three months right now, or even six months, depending on the car's make and year.

Toyota Prius hybrid model cars wait for customers at a Toyota dealership in California.

It's simple supply chain dynamics: Amid the surge in catalytic converter theft, more people need new converters. While some cars can take a universal part, many cars — including Priuses — require a part designed specifically for that make and model. And it takes a long time for supply to catch up with the demand, particularly as thieves shift which cars they’re stealing from.

A worker at a Bay Area Toyota dealer, who asked to remain anonymous because they weren't authorized to disclose order details, told SFGATE there's currently a national backlog of 10,000 orders for converters to fit certain models of Prius, including 2,000 parts backordered locally. (A Toyota spokesperson declined to comment on the numbers.)

San Carlos resident Joel Eisenberg knows about the long wait to get a new catalytic converter — he's been waiting for a replacement for his 2012 Prius since early October.

"I’m being told that the problem is so bad that there are no catalytic converters and they’re all on back order," Eisenberg told SFGATE in November. "It’ll take 2 to 4 months to get the part."

While Eisenberg's insurance will cover the cost of the new part and labor, it only covered a rental car for one month.

"My wife has a car so we’re just making it work, she's dropping me off at work, we’re begging, borrowing and stealing cars from neighbors and family," he said jokingly.

Boxes of new catalytic converters sit on a shelf at Johnny Franklin's Muffler on July 11, 2022, in San Rafael, Calif.

The price of the actual catalytic converter has gone up amid the increase in thefts. In 2019, Rodriguez said a replacement part for a 2005 to 2010 Honda Element, a common target, cost anywhere from $400 to $500. That same part now costs up to $1,100.

Many car owners won't notice the increase in cost, because any theft will be covered by insurance. But those without comprehensive auto insurance are feeling the pinch. When Aaron Middlebrook of San Jose had the catalytic converter stolen off his 2007 Prius last year, he was shocked to learn a new one from the local Toyota dealership would cost him $3,200 — nearly what the car was worth.

"My car is worth probably $4,500," he told SFGATE. After six months of searching, he found a dealership in Roseville that would do it for $2,300. But he fears this isn't the only time he'll be paying for a new one, given all the stories he's heard of thieves returning to the same cars over and over.

Due to the high cost to replace a stolen catalytic converter, some people are resorting to illegal setups so they can continue to drive their cars. Some smog shops will take under-the-table payments to look the other way on cars with catalytic converters that meet federal standards, for instance, but not California ones, as East Bay resident Lucy Armentrout found out when she accidentally bought the wrong catalytic converter to replace one stolen off her 2005 Honda Accord five months ago.

Although the AutoZone part's computer indicated the converter would meet California air quality standards, the first mechanic she took it to refused to install it, telling her it wasn't compliant and his shop could be shut down if he installed an illegal replacement. She took it to a second shop, which confirmed it wasn't compliant — but said if she paid extra, they would install it and "ensure" her car passed a smog check. She opted to return the converter and pay the steep price for a legal one, instead.

Luis Benitez works on a car at Johnny Franklin's Muffler on July 11, 2022, in San Rafael, Calif. Thefts of catalytic converters are surging across the nation as thieves seek out precious metals like platinum, palladium and rhodium that fill the inside of the antipollution car part.

Other car owners have installed what's known as "straight piping," welding an empty pipe into the part of the exhaust system where the converter used to sit. It may muffle the noise somewhat, but it ensures the car is belching pollutants every time it turns on.

"A lot of these people are desperate, these people need to get to work, their insurance won't cover the cost of a rental, or their insurance won't even cover the replacement of the cat," Rodriguez said. "I’ve seen people get creative just to drive where it's not noisy and obnoxious."

The mechanics approached by SFGATE said they do not install straight pipes in cars, saying their shops would be shut down if they helped people break the law. Jessie Kent, who owns a smog shop in Berkeley, said he discovers an illegal setup about every two months.

"I’ll get people who are buying used cars. … They don't even realize that they’ve been straight-piped until they go to pass smog," Kent said. "Sometimes in the visual inspection, I catch an aftermarket cat that's not legal for the vehicle. We have to fail it."

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed two bills in September aiming to curtail catalytic converter theft, which will both go into effect on Jan. 1, 2023. The first law prohibits buying used catalytic converters from anyone other than authorized sellers. The second requires recyclers to keep detailed records of converters they’ve bought and sold.

"We won't know if these laws will help until they go into effect," Sgt. Kim Macdonald with the Fremont Police Department said. "You need an arm of the law to followup on things. Is there someone who is going to be dedicated to making sure that these laws are followed? I’m not sure who that will be. We’ll see how things shake out, I’m hoping things will improve. This is a lot for people. It impacts people's livelihoods and their ability to get to work."

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, shown in a file photo, signed two bills last month aiming to curtail catalytic converter theft, which will both go into effect Jan. 1, 2023.

Bay Area police are also chipping away at the issue. After a yearlong investigation, the Fremont Police Department shut down a recycling company after undercover officers found 300 stolen converters at the site.

Both the San Francisco and Oakland police departments said they’ve recently arrested thieves, but didn't provide any details. Both departments sent SFGATE advice for car owners, including installing motion-activated cameras and lighting, paying mechanics to install anti-theft cages or plates around converters, and engraving personal information on catalytic converters.

But all of that advice rings hollow for the victims of these thefts. Most of the people who spoke with SFGATE had their cars parked in well-lit locations, including in garages and driveways, or behind gates. Several had protective cages or plates welded onto the converters, but it only takes thieves a few extra minutes with a power saw to cut through such measures, and they can easily scratch off personal information.

When Hummel's converter was stolen the second time, her car was parked in a BART garage, and the converter was protected with a welded plate. The third time, she was parked in a private, gated parking lot.

"Pretty much everyone I know who has a Prius has gotten a catalytic converter stolen at some point," she told SFGATE. "It makes me really sad that we live in a system where destroying people's property and ability to function in their lives is the most reasonable solution for some people."

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