Catalytic converters are a hot item for thieves to take off vehicles — and Virginia Beach police engraved them for free on Saturday to potentially identify them if they’re stolen and recovered.
The Virginia Beach Police Department hosted its first free engraving earlier this year, Sergeant William Frederick said, and Saturday’s event was back due to popular demand.
Seventy-two people signed up to have their car’s VIN etched onto their catalytic converters. Police served several walk-in (or rather drive-in) appointments as well. At the first engraving event in April, police serviced 82 vehicles.
Volunteers from the police academy directed traffic in the London Bridge Baptist Church parking lot. An officer mounted vehicles on plastic wedges. A second officer scooted underneath on a mechanic’s creeper to engrave the converters.
“If it’s stolen and we’re able to recover it, we can do some cross reference with the VIN number,” Frederick said. “Then we have a victim we can tie to the theft. And if we’re fortunate enough to identify a suspect, then we can file charges.”
Catalytic converters change gas from engines into less toxic pollutants. Vehicles made after 1975 have at least one. Larger vehicles, like trucks and buses, can have four or more. Converters contain metals like platinum, palladium and rhodium, which can be sold.
Thefts of the converters skyrocketed across the country in 2020 and through 2022, but declined from about 60,000 to 26,000 per year in 2023, according to Auto Insurance Specialists.
In Virginia, 550 converters were stolen in 2023.
The Virginia Beach Police Department does not track the number of catalytic converter thefts specifically. They are included in broader larceny statistics for thefts from motor vehicles, according to a police spokesperson.
Thefts from motor vehicles — including things stolen from inside and outside of cars — declined from about 3,200 in 2022 to 2,100 the next year. As of Sept. 30, police recorded 1,200 thefts for 2024.
Although the department doesn’t track catalytic converter thefts specifically, Frederick said anecdotally, the number seems to be down in the city. Police have not identified any stolen converters from the previous engraving event.
Frederick said “even one theft is too many.”
He started offering catalytic converter engraving in Virginia Beach after seeing similar events in Chesapeake and Newport News. He wrote a proposal and received grant funding from Virginia State Police to purchase the equipment to engrave the converters.
Frederick plans to host engraving events as long as people are interested and the department continues to receive the funding.
