Speaker 1: (00:00)
In an effort to combat the growing theft of catalytic converters. Carlsbad has become the first city in the county to pass legislation aimed at addressing the issue. The new law would make it illegal for anyone other than a licensed recycler to possess a catalytic converter without valid proof of ownership, the law, which will go into effect next coincides with a similar effort introduced by California, Senator Brian Jones of Sant to tighten up regulations on converter theft statewide. Joining me now with more on this issue is captain Christie Calderwood with the Carlsbad police department, captain. Calderwood welcome to the program.
Speaker 2: (00:38)
Thank you for having me. It's my pleasure.
Speaker 1: (00:40)
So how does this new law tighten up some of the issues surrounding the theft of catalytic converters?
Speaker 2: (00:45)
Well, we'd like to educate the residents in regards to protecting themselves, but we'd also like to bring sanctions to those that are victimizing our citizenry. And we hope that by having this new ordinance within the city of Carlsbad, that's prohibiting the unlawful possession of a catalytic converter, that it will not only bring education to people that could potentially be victimized, but also the criminals that are roaming the streets particularly at night and are victimizing people by taking their catalytic converters.
Speaker 1: (01:17)
So will this new law make it easier for officers in your department to police this crime?
Speaker 2: (01:21)
We abs believe that it will. The challenge in this type of crime that we have seen is that it is very difficult for our local DA's office to prosecute. And the reason for that is that these catalytic converters traditionally do not have any identifying information on them. They do not have any, um, plate numbers or VIN numbers. So when we pull people over and have multiple recovered catalytic converters that we believe are stolen and we have detained somebody who we think is, uh, the suspect, the challenge is trying to locate an identified victim. So we're trying to move forward with an ordinance that if you come into Carlsbad and you try to steal a catalytic convert from one of our citizens, and we pull you over with the unlawful possession of one, we will be able to convict you hopefully through our city attorney's office for a misdemeanor crime of possession of the catalytic converter.
Speaker 1: (02:15)
What advice would you give to people? Looking to deter would be thieves.
Speaker 2: (02:20)
We've held events where we have partnered with a local auto body shop so that citizens can come and get their catalytic converter engraved with either their VIN or license plate number for free. We have had many events where we have our senior volunteers handout, flyers to potential victims. And the Toyota Prius is the most targeted vehicle in a crime like this. So we try to educate our citizens as well, so that they are not victimized. So the message to the would be criminals is don't come to the city of Carlsbad and think that you're gonna get away with it because we are out there looking for people with both uniformed and non uniform officers. And we have a new ordinance that is going into effect to help us prosecute these crimes.
Speaker 1: (03:02)
So let's take a step back here. I mean, what is a catalytic converter and why are they so highly sought after, by thieves in the first place?
Speaker 2: (03:09)
It basically takes all of the effects that come out of your vehicle and creates smog and dirty up the environment. So it's kind of a cleaning tool if you will. And there's extremely precious metals that are inside of these catalytic converters, that range, depending on, you know, at the height of Roadium, for example, you could get $30,000 per ounce. At one point in 2021, it's averaging about $11,000 per ounce, but the platinum palladium and odium is extremely expensive, so they can take them to recycling centers. And we're cracking down on the recycling centers as well, making sure that they are in compliance, but they run anywhere between on the low end, very low end $300 all the way up to a thousand dollars a piece per converter.
Speaker 1: (03:55)
So you mentioned recycling places are buying these stolen convert. What can you do on that end to deter this type of crime?
Speaker 2: (04:03)
What we have learned is that a lot of the thieves are selling them to what, what are called fences. So it's kind of like a middle man who is then selling the precious metals to places outside of our county places outside of even our country. And the, a pandemic has played a lot into these precious metals increasing in price. So as everyone knows, there's been a lot of, um, supply chain issues. There's been a lot of, you could look at anything on the market, whether it's a vehicle all the way to things at the grocery store and supply chain. And so it's driving up the prices of these precious metals. So finding that they're selling 'em really to the fences. And so our goal is to find out who these people are that are acting as the middle men. And try to break that down.
Speaker 1: (04:49)
You mentioned that Prius's are targeted more heavily. Why is that?
Speaker 2: (04:53)
So the Prius one, it's extremely easy to get to it's it takes, like I said, less than a minute for somebody to steal one of these, if they have the right tools and the Prius, because of the way that it's, um, made. And it's a hybrid, the precious metals are more expensive.
Speaker 1: (05:10)
And what kind of recourse does the average citizen have if they find themselves the victim of this kind of crime.
Speaker 2: (05:16)
So at this point it's somewhat difficult. You know, what happens is most people will wake up in the morning, get in their vehicle and turn it on. And they will hear a loud deafening sound, which is how they realize that they have been victimized. They will then hopefully call the police and report it. A lot of times, they do not. And they'll take the vehicle to get fixed or have it towed to get fixed, which costs anywhere between a thousand and $2,000 to replace these. And then when we take the crime report and work with our district attorney's office, we're doing everything we can to ultimately locate the suspect, but that's very challenging in itself. So as far as recourse for the victims at this point, there isn't a lot. And that's why we wanted to introduce this new ordinance so that when we have somebody that is detained and we have these catalytic converters in our possession, we don't just have to release them because we don't have an identified victim. We hope that there will be further sanctions down the line for people that are in possession of these right now for the, or ordinance in Carlsbad, it will be a misdemeanor charge, but there are also other charges that we plan on being able to book people for which can include grand theft, which is a felony possession of burglary tools. And anything else that fits the scenario that is occurring.
Speaker 1: (06:33)
And what type of charge does a recycling center who's taking in these stolen parts? How are they prosecuted? How are the middlemen in this prosecuted? It seems like the low person on the totem pole. We've got that, but what about the people who are really driving this?
Speaker 2: (06:50)
So the people that are really driving this, if like, if the, if a suspect states or somebody at a recycling center states, any thing about working on vehicles or taking in these catalytic converters and doesn't have the correct paperwork to show that they work for a recycling center or are transporting them for some legitimate reason, which it's very unlikely that somebody's be driving around with a used dirty detached cataly converter. So there is a California, a vehicle code for owning or operating a chop shop, which is something new that we are looking into as far as charging people with. If they possess burglary tools and have likely stolen catalytic converters in their possession, they may meet the criteria for operating a Mo mobile chop shop.
Speaker 1: (07:34)
And finally, what challenges do you see to actually fi finding thieves, driving down the street with stolen catalytic converters in their car?
Speaker 2: (07:44)
Sure. That's always the challenge, you know, but we have some super smart, intelligent officers that are working day and night to combat this rising trend. This is extremely important to us in the city of Carlsbad property crimes, or, you know, one of our high guess crime trends throughout the years. So we have officers we're training them on what to look for. We are deploying them in areas. There is an increase in thefts like this, and we're just telling them and showing them the right things to look for that are suspicious and don't seem right. And when they make traffic stops that are proactive of, and they are detaining people that will have multiple catalytic converters in the vehicle with them. Then they now have a new tool to help combat the rising trend.
Speaker 1: (08:28)
Do you think this translates to pretextual stops?
Speaker 2: (08:32)
I don't think so. I don't wanna go down the road of, um, the pretextual stops. I mean, this is something that we hope is, is a, a tool that if somebody is found to be in the illegal possession, it just helps them be prosecutable down the line. Because a lot of times we don't have that. Like I said, the identified victim, but we're not changing any way to go out and pull over people that we probably wouldn't have pulled over before. We're pulling people over for mostly moving violations, but these traffic stops will lead to other crimes and other types of arrests.
Speaker 1: (09:07)
All right. I've been speaking with Carlsbad police, captain Christie. Calderwood. Thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker 2: (09:13)
Absolutely. Thank you for your time. I.
