Catalytic converter thefts continue to plague drivers

Catalino Dumlao parked his 1995 Toyota 4Runner outside his office in Torrance, worked for a couple of hours and left for lunch.

When he got into his truck and turned the ignition switch, he heard a loud roar.

"You can just imagine one of those old beat-up cars from the '70s without a muffler," the Harbor Gateway resident said.

On Feb. 26, Dumlao, 41, became the victim of a new crime. Thieves are targeting vehicles for their catalytic converters, emission-control devices lined with precious metals like platinum, rhodium and palladium with values reaching into the thousands of dollars per ounce.

Catalytic converters, located in the undercarriage, are easily removed by unscrewing a few bolts, authorities said. And each one can have about a tenth of an ounce of precious metal.

On Wednesday, police announced the arrests of two men suspected of committing several catalytic converter thefts in El Segundo, Torrance, Long Beach and Signal Hill.

Cesar Gonzalez, 30, of Downey, and Sergio De La Torre, 30, of Compton, are suspects in several thefts Monday. Police said the suspected thieves specifically targeted Toyota sport utility vehicles.

According to metal trading Web sites, platinum sold Wednesday for more than $1,100 an ounce, palladium for nearly $350 and rhodium for $5,900.

"Whenever there is a higher commodity price for the metals we tend to see an increase in the crime," said Bryan McGannon, spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries.

Auto recycling businesses nationwide are falling victim to the crime as well, as thieves break inside and take catalytic converters from scores of junked cars, McGannon said.

In Hazlehurst, Ga., thieves broke into a salvage yard on Feb. 3 and took 80 to 100 converters already removed from vehicles.

"That's a huge problem for us," McGannon said. "That's why any legitimate scrap dealer doesn't want to knowingly take stolen material, because they know what it's like to be stolen from."

ISRI issues e-mail alerts to recyclers whenever thefts occur nationwide to make sure legitimate dealers do not purchase the stolen parts from thieves.

"If you get enough platinum, theoretically you could sell it to a jeweler who is making rings," McGannon said.

Thieves tend to strike sport utility vehicles and trucks because they are higher off the ground than cars.

"It happened to my truck," said Manny Shadman of Scott's Auto Salvage on Main Street in Carson. "It was a '95 4Runner, which is very high, the axle is high. It's easy to crawl under there."

Police think the El Segundo suspects took catalytic converters from vehicles in the 2200 block of East Imperial Highway and 300 block of Continental Boulevard.

El Camino College Police Chief Mike D'Amico said they also are suspected in thefts from eight Toyota 4Runners in campus parking lots in the past three weeks, along with four or five crimes in Gardena.

One man slid under the vehicles to remove the bolts, while the other acted as lookout, D'Amico said.

"On Monday of this week, we got a call from a student who saw the crime in progress and got a very good vehicle description and suspect description," D'Amico said.

Among other reported South Bay crimes:

* Eighteen catalytic converters were removed from Toyota Tundra and Tacoma trucks during a two-month period at a Toyota storage lot in the 1800 block of 190th Street in Torrance.

* Thieves struck three vehicles in the South High School parking lot in Torrance in January.

* A catalytic converter was taken Feb. 13 from a vehicle parked in the 22100 block of Vermont Avenue in Carson.

* A surgical technician at County Harbor-UCLA Medical Center reported the theft of his catalytic converter from his truck in the hospital parking lot Feb. 7.

* A device was taken from a vehicle parked &Feb. 8 in the 14900 block of Gramercy Place in Gardena.

Replacing a catalytic converter is costly. California law prohibits installing a used device, although other states allow it, McGannon said.

Dumlao, whose sport utility vehicle was parked near Crenshaw Boulevard and the San Diego (405) Freeway when it was hit, decided to buy a new catalytic converter for $127 from a company in New Jersey when he was given a repair estimate of $1,100. He plans to install it himself.

"Twenty feet away from my car was a nice Porsche Carrera," Dumlao said. "Why the hell did they target my beat-up old Toyota truck?"

larry.altman@dailybreeze.com