Catalytic converter thieves who brazenly pull up to parked cars, saw off the vehicles’ catalytic converters, and sell them for the metal alloys inside may find the market drying up in Illinois.
Governor J.B. Pritzker signed into law a measure requiring anyone selling recyclable metal and catalytic converters to a scrap metal recycler to show their driver’s license or ID, and provide their name and address.
Under the new law, recyclers will not be allowed to buy any catalytic converters if they, or their parts, may be valued at more than $100.
State Representative LaShawn Ford was among the sponsors of the bill and said catalytic converter thefts have happened on his own block.
“It’s important that we do everything we can to dry up this market where criminals know that, even if they steal it, there will be no place for them to sell it,” Ford said.
Ford said scrap metal companies have to do the right thing, too, and be able to provide the sales information to state regulators.
“It puts you in the mindset of the pawn shops where people go into the pawn shops, and they have to present an ID," Ford said. "If the pawn shops are not in compliance, then they could lose their license and that’s what we’re going to do in Illinois as a result of the scrap metals.”
Central Metal Recycling on the West Side said it has never accepted catalytic converters because of the possibility they’d been stolen.
The owner of C&J Scrap Metal in Addison, who did not wish to be identified, said his company will now begin accepting catalytic converters because the new law will provide some regulation, which he said would reassure him that the devices had not been stolen.
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