Heist of 83 catalytic converters worth $50,000 foiled by Lexington sheriff’s deputies

When police catch thieves with stolen catalytic converters, they usually find just a few of the valuable metallic gizmos that the thieves have pried from a vehicle’s undercarriage.

But this week in Lexington County, sheriff’s deputies arrested a man who had a truck with 83 allegedly stolen catalytic converters in it. The truck had also been stolen, officials said.

The 83 catalytic converters were valued at $50,000, according to police report.

The arrest of Curtis Sebastian Crummie, 41, of Neeses, in Orangeburg County, resulted from a tip. He is charged with 85 counts of felony property crimes in connection with the 83 catalytic converters and a stolen Dodge Ram pickup truck valued at $10,760.

“Someone spotted the catalytic converters in the bed of the truck and knew that didn’t look right,” said Lexington County Sheriff Jay Koon said in a press statement.

The tip about a “suspicious vehicle” directed deputies to a spot near the intersection of Shirway and Old Barnwell roads.

A crime wave of stolen catalytic converters is sweeping South Carolina and the nation. The emissions-control devices are required on all vehicles and used to scrub pollutants from the exhaust.

“Somewhere in the Columbia area, at least 10 catalytic converters are stolen every day,” said Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott. “Thefts are wide open and full blast.”

An experienced thief with the right equipment can crawl under a vehicle and within a minute or two, rip off the catalytic converter, Lott said.

A vehicle with no catalytic converter makes a huge racket when driven.

In the last month, The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune and The Washington Post have all done stories about the catalytic converter crime wave around the country.

“A precious metal that costs 15 times more than gold is driving a surge in thefts of catalytic converters,” read a headline in The Washington Post this week.

The precious metal, said The Post, is rhodium, which is part of virtually all catalytic converters, which are required in all motor vehicles and play a major part in breaking down pollutants in a vehicle’s exhaust.

Another precious metal in catalytic converters is palladium, according to The New York Times, which reported last month that both rhodium and palladium are fetching record prices these days on the world’s metal markets.

Thieves can make from $50 to several hundred dollars when they sell just one catalytic converter to a scrap yard, according to an article in Car and Driver.

And it can cost a car owner from $1,000 to more than several thousand dollars to get a new catalytic converter put on their car.

Sheriff Koon and police records said the 80-plus catalytic converters seized this week had been reported stolen from Sunshine Recycling, a metal recycling shop in Orangeburg County, and the pickup truck and trailer were stolen from an adjacent business. His department is investigating along with Orangeburg authorities.

This story was originally published March 5, 2021 at 1:05 PM.