News

Oct 09, 2023

CA catalytic converter bill passes Assembly, hopes to tackle theft

Stay up to speed on all the latest local and national political news. Lawmakers

Stay up to speed on all the latest local and national political news.

Lawmakers hoping to fight the rash of catalytic converter thefts in California passed a major hurdle on Friday.

A bill that would both crackdown on thefts and put measures in place to help deter thefts passed the state Assembly.

The metal inside a converter is so valuable people have been cutting them off cars in broad daylight. Car dealership owners have even gone to the lengths of sleeping in their showrooms to try and prevent thefts.

As KCRA 3 Investigates has reported, over the past three years, there were nearly 3,000 reports of catalytic converter thefts in Sacramento County alone. Twenty-seven of the thefts were referred to the District Attorney's Office, which only filed charges in 25 of those cases.

| RELATED | 'It's an epidemic': Reports of catalytic converter thefts up 1,500% in Sacramento County

Several Assemblymembers have pushed several bills to try and help prevent thefts.

AB 2682 has taken pieces of several other bills that were in the Assembly and combined them to one, including requiring the VIN be added to the catalytic converter.

"We're asking that the automobile manufacturers do that at the time of the manufacture of the car. They already etch I think 18 or 19 different parts in the automobile this adds the catalytic converter," said Assemblyman Jim Patterson, (R) Fresno at the floor session.

The bill's authors, Assemblymembers Adam Gray, Steven Choi and Patterson say that it will add penalities for altering the VIN on a converter or selling it. It would also require smog check facilities to check that the VIN is inscribed on the converter.

The bill passed the Assembly and now moves to the Senate where it is expected to face a number of amendments.