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Oct 23, 2023

Schraa, Sparr differ on how to fight catalytic converter thefts

Posted By: Oshkosh ExaminerDecember 21, 2022 By Miles Maguire Winnebago County’s

Posted By: Oshkosh ExaminerDecember 21, 2022

By Miles Maguire

Winnebago County's top prosecutor thinks that Wisconsin could pick up on legislative changes from elsewhere in the country as a way of crimping the market for stolen catalytic converters, a problem that sidelined local school bus operations earlier this year.

But Oshkosh Rep. Mike Schraa, a Republican member of the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee, said he thinks the changes would "put significant hardships on small salvage yards."

In a Dec. 5 memo to Schraa, District Attorney Eric Sparr argued that recently enacted legislation in Oregon could be adopted in Wisconsin to discourage the theft of catalytic converters. These devices contain precious metals and can be sold for hundreds of dollars.

Replacement can cost a vehicle owner as much as $1,500, and thefts have soared across the country in recent years.

Changes in Oregon law "reduce the incentive to steal converters by adding layers of protection to the sales, preventing the purchase of these parts in isolation by dismantlers and adding identification markers via stock or yard number to associate them with a specific vehicle or purchaser," Sparr's memo said.

A key new requirement is that buyers of scrap catalytic converters can no longer pay cash. Instead they have to use "electronic funds transfer, stored value card or stored value device or [mail] a nontransferable check," according to the Oregon legislation.

In addition the DA would like to see Wisconsin law changed to make it clear that the theft of a catalytic converter would be considered a felony.

Sparr said he was motivated in part by the recent thefts of catalytic converters from the bus companies that provide transportation in the Oshkosh and Menasha school districts. In Oshkosh regular school transportation was canceled for a day because so many vehicles were disabled by thieves.

Such crimes "can heavily impact the working families of the area who rely" on school bus transportation, Sparr said.

The DA said that the thefts are often committed by individuals in need of money in a hurry.

"Enacting legislation similar to Oregon would severely limit the ability of thieves to instantly turn stolen catalytic converters into cash, which would massively decrease the incentive for people to steal them," Sparr said.

"While effective enforcement can be a tool in the fight against crime, striking at the reason people would even commit the crimes in the first place seems an even more efficient way to address the problem," he said.

The legislature has already made some changes that include requirements for junk yards to track the identification and license plates of persons selling catalytic converters.

Schraa said he has some doubts about Sparr's proposal.

"I’ve been contacting the area's salvage yards," Schraa said. What he has heard is that repair shops will often tell customers who have their catalytic converter replaced to take the old one to a salvage yard to get some money for it.

"This apparently happens quite often," Schraa said. But these legitimate transactions would be harder to complete if the law were changed.

Schraa is "not sure how we’d be able to require them to set up bank transfers instead of cash payments," he said. "Not sure how I feel about making it a felony either," he added.

"It's a pretty complicated issue that we need to talk about with stakeholders to try and find a solution," Schraa said.

"My office looks forward to continuing to work with Rep. Schraa to find legislative solutions that make sense for everyone," said Sparr.