Vehicle catalytic converter thieves continue to cause grief and expense for car owners and insurance companies, but Nanaimo RCMP, Central Vancouver Island Crime Stoppers and Auto Check Automotive hope to at least scratch the surface of the crime, so to speak, with a free catalytic converter etching event.
According to a Nanaimo RCMP press release, statistics from 2022 tallied 119 reported catalytic converter thefts and a total of 6,143 thefts of the pollution control devices across B.C. – an 89 per cent jump from figures collected in 2017 – representing a replacement cost topping $8 million.