Cars' catalytic converters being targeted in Tampa
Thursday, March 1, 2007
The converters are used in cars to help keep the air clean.
Tampa police say they're dealing with an unusual crime that could affect any Bay area driver.
Thieves are stealing catalytic converters from underneath cars and then selling them to scrap yards. Police raided one of those scrap yards on Thursday, finding hundreds of the converters inside a warehouse on Third Avenue and 17th Street in the Ybor City area. They say it was the first big bust of this kind in Tampa.
Police say the catalytic converters are popular with thieves because they contain precious metals like rhodium and platinum. Detectives say since January, 150 people in Tampa have been victims of this crime.
Contact The Reporter- E-mail Josh Rojas, the TV reporter for this story.
"This is a rising problem that we're seeing," said Tampa Police Detective Ashley Roberts. "It's not only in the city of Tampa, but it's countywide."
Police say they got a tip that the International Core Supply business was buying the stolen parts from thieves, so they set up a sting.
"The undercover officer came in, got the dialogue that they are stolen catalytic converters and they bought [them] without any problems," said Roberts.
Police say the thieves got about $75 per converter from the scrap yard. Then the scrap yard sold them for about $300 each.
The owner of Mike's Auto Shop in Tampa, Mike Giaccone, says stealing catalytic converters can be done in 5-10 minutes.
"It'd be very easy to move it, like I said, with a Saw Zaw and that's all you do is end up cutting the back off here, cutting the front off and you're gone," said Giaccone.
Both of the suspects work at the family-owned business.
Mandret Khanna, 33, and his cousin, Sandeep Sethi, 33, were arrested in Thursday's sting. They both work at the scrap yard.
"We just want to make a statement that if anybody that is doing this, whether they're taking them or they're dealing, the same exact thing's going to happen to them," said Roberts.
Catalytic converters, which are attached to cars' mufflers, are used to help keep the air clean.