The six hours spent in the airport, on a plane, in another airport and then on light rail was more time than I’d slept in days. I’d fought the weekend trip, and the weekend trip won. Hung over, tired and in no shape to handle the reality of life, I made my way to the park- ing lot and, with frozen pizza and pillows on my mind, started my car. Only it didn’t sound like a car anymore. The exhaust sounded worse than my great Aunt Gladys after walking up a fl ight of stairs: loud, grinding and full of phlegm. I realized the problem before my Toyota 4Runner lurched out of the parking spot: The catalytic converter was gone. Even if my brain cells could have reacted, there would have been no shock. The only real surprise was that it hadn’t happened sooner. Colorado has the highest rate of auto theft per capita in the country, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, and it also has one of the highest rates of catalytic converter thefts. Coveted for both resale and the recycling of their precious metals, catalytic convert- ers have had big black-market potential since their widespread adoption. They’re easy to remove from a car’s undercarriage, they’re virtually untraceable after being stolen, and they bring in quick cash from metal scrappers. In 2021 there were 9,811 reported catalytic converter thefts across the state, according to the Colorado Auto Theft Prevention Author- ity (CATPA), an arm of the Colorado State Patrol, up from 189 in 2019. That’s an increase of more than 5,000 percent — and Denver’s seen an even steeper climb. Over a three-year span, the city’s reports of catalytic converter loss and theft increased 119,250 percent, going from three in 2018 to 2,387 in 2021. This year’s numbers are slightly ahead of that, according to the Denver Police Department. “Any time you have economic hardship and downturn, we historically see property crimes follow that redline. We saw auto theft spike in the economic recession of 2008 and, unfortunately, we’ve seen recent pandemic trends follow that and then some,” says Car- ole Walker, executive director of the Rocky Mountain Insurance Association. “This isn’t just something for people who live in the city or metro areas. It’s a continued on page 12 11 westword.com | CONTENTS | LETTERS | NEWS | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | CAFE | MUSIC | WESTWORD JUNE 30-JULY 6, 2022 JAY VOLLMAR
