The Unkindest Cut continued from page 12 month waiting for someone to come up with a converter that could [legally] be put on the vehicle.” Sometimes insurance disputes hold up the repair, and sometimes it’s the car owner’s lack of insurance. Coverage for catalytic converters is considered comprehensive in Colorado, and it’s not part of liability cover- age, so drivers don’t need it to be on the road. Having to pay full freight for an entire repair can empty savings accounts or span multiple paychecks for some Coloradans. And without a car legally allowed to operate on roadways, they could lack a way to get where vehicles are going to be sitting for a while. Places like parking lots, parking garages and businesses with fl eets of trucks and vans,” DPD spokesman Doug Schepman confi rms. “If a business isn’t open on Satur- day and Sunday, then those vehicles could be targeted, because there is less of a risk of being contacted by someone.” Other than parking the vehicle in a locked home garage or installing a plated undercar- riage on the car, there’s not much an owner can do to secure a catalytic converter. All areas of the state, urban and rural, are see- ing high rates of converter thefts, and any accepted protective measures are mostly preventative obstacles, Schepman admits. Metal cages can be installed over con- spokesman (and occasional Westword con- tributor) Skyler McKinley. A former aide on Hickenlooper’s guber- natorial staff, McKinley doesn’t see catalytic converter thefts signifi cantly decreasing until the economy improves or aggressive legislative reform is implemented. “When making tough economic choices during hard times, a lot of people make the choice not to have insurance,” he says. “You also have folks who have their backs up against the wall economically and have to commit crimes to survive, and oftentimes they’re committing crimes against people who depend on their cars to get to and from work.” Despite the oppressive economic cycle, verters, but those can be cut through. Etch- McKinley is optimistic that legislation passed cars and solving higher-profi le crimes are higher priorities. But if you see a pair of legs dangling from underneath your car one night, the cops don’t want you to take matters into your own hands, either. Reports of lookouts brandish- ing weapons and assaults during catalytic converter thefts aren’t uncommon, DPD and CATPA note. In March, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Offi ce reported that cata- lytic converter theft suspects had shot at a car owner who confronted them. “We’d never recommend anyone contact the thief by themselves. Nine times out of ten, they’re carrying a weapon, and your life is way more valuable than a catalytic converter. It’s a pain to get fi xed, but it’s not as bad as losing your life,” Kessler warns. Lakewood resident Elizabeth Bossert stopped a man from sawing off a catalytic converter underneath her partner’s car. to work. According to Rocky Mountain’s Walker, who represents property insurers in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, the cost of repairs has also gone up with the rise of catalytic converter thefts. “We’re seeing higher prices and time for 14 repairs. Some of that is from the increasing cost of high tech, but we also have labor and supply-chain shortages,” she says. “Then it becomes whether your insurance covers it, how much your deductible is, and how much that repair costs. In some cases, they may declare it a total loss on an older vehicle — and if you carry a high deductible, you may be stuck paying for the entire repair.” Living without a secured parking spot in Capitol Hill, one of Denver’s most crowded neighborhoods, I always half-expected to fi nd a hole in my rear window or, more recently, my catalytic converter stolen. My car insurance went up $9 a month after I reported my new address, and I’d seen my fair share of theft and defecation living a block off Lincoln Street. But my car was probably safer on the street in Cap Hill than in the shark-infested waters where I’d left it fl oating during that weekend trip: a light-rail parking lot en route to the airport. “We have seen places frequently hit ing a vehicle’s VIN number onto a converter has become an attainable option in hopes of stopping resales or catching stolen items, but a VIN number etching won’t show up in recycled platinum or rhodium. Still, a metal cage likely takes more time to cut through than a thief wants to spend, and VIN number etchings could help deter criminals if adopted on a wider scale, ac- cording to CATPA spokesman and Colorado State Patrol sergeant Troy Kessler. “If you stop a truck full of unmarked converters, there’s really no way to show evidence of them being stolen. It’s hard to prove,” Kessler says. “At least the etchings are somewhat of a deterrent. If you go to a reputable business owner who wants to stay in business, they’re not going to want to take a catalytic converter that has a label showing it’s stolen.” Local law enforcement agencies, CATPA and AAA have partnered to host various VIN etching events in Colorado where several thousand catalytic converters are etched in order to discourage thieves from selling them on the secondary market. Kessler says that CATPA has another 1,000 etching jobs in the works, but state funding for AAA’s program ran out in July, according to AAA Colorado earlier this year will help address the issue. One state bill requires junk and metal scrap- yards to keep more detailed records of cata- lytic converter transactions, with any person who buys fi ve or more vehicles for scrap and reclaim purposes inside of a twelve-month span now required to report all vehicles to the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System. A separate measure establishes more penalties for selling or transporting a stolen or tampered vehicle emissions system, while yet another bill appropriated over $400,000 in grants to further investigate and monitor catalytic converter theft. “These were based off model legislation that other states have passed. Both of them go a long way in establishing those guardrails we need. Functionally, we needed to come up with these, just so catalytic converters can be tracked by law enforcement,” McKinley says. “It could also help determine whether or not a catalytic converter has been properly sourced.” Although Schepman and Kessler agree that law enforcement could certainly use more resources in tracking catalytic con- verter theft, neither could say whether the crimes are more closely connected to organized rings or opportunistic thieves. They admit that handling the theft of actual “Call 911, video-record it if you can, and try to stay hidden but get a good description. If they get in a car, try to get the license plate. Be as good a witness as you can, but we want you stay just that: a witness.” For some property owners, that’s easier said than done. I was never faced with the decision of stomping on someone’s shins as they sawed off my converter or standing by and calling the police. Running on a fried brain after three days of no sleep, who’s to say what I would have done? Elizabeth Bossert found herself in that situ- ation, and she chose confrontation. The Lakewood resident says that her town- home community, near West 20th Avenue and Wadsworth Boulevard, has been stricken with property theft. Cars are broken into on a semi-regular basis, she says, and packages often disappear from porches. The majority of her Christmas deliveries were stolen in 2021, and days before we spoke, her neighbors had woken to bikes missing from their balcony and a ladder against it leading down to the ground. Although police respond to calls and visit her neighborhood regularly, Bossert doesn’t feel like thieves have much fear of reprisal unless they’re caught in the act. And as she JUNE 30-JULY 6, 2022 WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | westword.com SETH SAWYERS/FLICKR EVAN SEMÓN
