COLOMBIA – A bipartisan effort to stem the wave of catalytic converter thefts that has swept communities across the state for years is swiftly passing through Casa SC under a bill that prohibits the sale of valuable components if they are separated from vehicles.
Legislation co-sponsored by House minority leader Todd Rutherford of Columbia and Lexington Republican Chris Wooten would give Palmetto State one of America’s toughest anti-theft laws, officials said.
The bill almost completely prohibits the sale of catalytic converters not coupled to scrap metal and metal recyclers, classifies parts as contraband and imposes repair costs on a convicted person or company who intentionally purchases a converter illegally.
According to the provision, licensed breakers, motor vehicle and mechanical dealers would be allowed to sell separate catalytic converters. The same can happen to people who have documentation that a removed device came from a vehicle registered in their name.
Counterfeiting a bill of sale would carry a maximum prison sentence of three years and also any fines ordered by the court.
“Georgia has one of the toughest laws in the country when it comes to that and we can really overcome it if we can implement some of these things,” SC Sherriffs Association chief Jared Bruder told a Chamber of Labor, Commerce and Industry subcommittee on March 10.
A day later, the entire committee voted unanimously to send the bill to the House floor.
Appreciated for the metals used to make them, including palladium, platinum and rhodium, catalytic converters, which remove toxic chemicals from exhaust systems, can be sawn from a vehicle in minutes, due to their accessible location between the muffler and the engine block.
On the black market, thieves can get between $ 50 and $ 600 each, but vehicle owners can expect to pay nearly three times that amount to replace them.
And with metal prices skyrocketing, the authorities fear that the problem will only get worse.
Palladium was being sold for about $ 2,300 an ounce, an increase of more than 50 percent over the previous year, and platinum for about $ 1,200 an ounce, double from a year ago, according to data from the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Most car converters contain about a quarter of an ounce each of palladium and platinum.
Wooten said the growing number of complaints about the catalytic converter in his district has led him to become a co-sponsor.
Between July and December 2020, the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department responded to 144 catalyst thefts – almost triple in the same period in 2019.
“South Carolina is serious about preventing catalytic converter theft and we will not stand by and watch our citizens being exploited by a band of rogue crooks,” Wooten told the Post and the Courier after the committee’s vote. “There are few things worse than a thief, and we will not tolerate that.”
On March 3, for example, Lexington County sheriff’s deputies arrested Curtis Crummie, 41, in connection with the theft of more than 80 catalytic converters from Sunshine Recycling, a company based in Orangeburg.
A series of robberies along the Grand Strand and in the interior of the state caused officials to call for a reinforced law as well.
“We come across this often,” Greenville police lieutenant Alia Paramore told the Post and Courier. “He will show up, we will send police to solve the problem, he will be suppressed for a while, and then he will show up again somewhere else. For scrap metal, it is difficult for them not to take things. They like to earn that money. So I hope that this legislation will reduce some of that. “
His department saw complaints about catalytic theft jumping from just five in 2019 to 68 last year.
State law enforcement enforced restrictions on the sale of catalytic converters to scrap dealers in 2011, allowing only licensed retailers or wholesalers to sell them and requiring metal recyclers to keep detailed records, including a copy of the seller’s name and address along with a photograph or fingerprint.
But this created a loophole for thieves, who would get money for their converters by surrounding them through licensed independent buyers who pay cents on the dollar and then sell them in bulk at a profit.
Others would simply set up tents on the side of the road and buy the devices – another practice that would be prohibited by the new law.
The president of the Chamber of Labor, Commerce and Industry, Bill Sandifer, R-Seneca, said he was satisfied with the language that smuggles sawn-type converters, because it would give the police more flexibility to search the vehicles that transport them and make arrests.
Sunshine Recycling owner Joe Rich said members of the state’s Recycling Association are already taking steps to combat the problem.
“We have a very good and responsible recycling industry in this state, which will comply with the conditions of this law, and I think it will go a long way in giving the police authorities the tools they need to delay these guys,” Rich told lawmakers at a hearing in 10 March. “We are already using video cameras and documenting all purchases that arrive at our facilities. We are already getting a driver’s license, we are already getting a license, so that really does not add any undue burden to my operation or anyone else’s.
Also supporting the proposal are South Carolina automotive dealers, since their stocks are particularly vulnerable to this type of theft.
“We have a terrible problem because our dealerships are very accessible to the public and certain vehicles, because of the height, make it very easy to slide and cut the catalytic converter,” said Sims Floyd, executive vice president of the organization, on March 10
Wooten said he expects the measure to be discussed later this month and to reach the Senate before the “crossover”, the deadline for projects to leave the chamber where they were presented, which in this session is on April 10.
Conor Hughes contributed from Greenville.