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Sep 08, 2023

'It's quite the epidemic': Police, body shop owners say catalytic converter thefts rising

Lawrence ‘Lou’ Ulibarri smiles Tuesday after installing a new catalytic

Lawrence ‘Lou’ Ulibarri smiles Tuesday after installing a new catalytic converter on a customer's vehicle at his shop, ABET Automotive. Ulibarri said he guessed his shop has been getting three customers a week for the past two years needing to have the devices replaced after they were stolen.

A man with an electric saw knelt down under a recreational vehicle parked in the driveway at Lisa Morris’ home in early October.

A neighbor caught the thief in the act of removing the RV's catalytic converter — but it was too late.

He got away with the device in broad daylight.

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Lawrence ‘Lou’ Ulibarri uses a soldering tool to weld a catalytic converter into place on a customer's vehicle Tuesday at his shop, ABET Automotive. Some of Ulibarri's customers have asked him to etch their vehicle identification numbers or put paint on their converters to make them more traceable in case they’re stolen.

Lawrence ‘Lou’ Ulibarri pulls a universal catalytic converter out of its box Tuesday at his shop.

Lawrence 'Lou' Ulibarri cuts a pipe after measuring it to place it under a customer's vehicle while installing a catalytic converter Tuesday. He makes custom catalytic converter configurations to match the factory model for cars that had the device stolen.

Santa Fe Police Department data shows 185 catalytic converters were stolen in the city city between Jan. 1 and Nov. 19.

January: 17

February: 21

March: 13

April: 26

May: 23

June: 12

July: 4

August: 17

September: 16

October: 18

*November: 18

*Through Nov. 19

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