In video taken by a neighbor, you may see a pair of legs squirming beneath a half-tilted Toyota Prius. Onlookers stated the obvious thief was splayed beneath the automobile in broad daylight in a West City parking lengthy as he minimize out the catalytic converter. Hours later, nonetheless unaware, the automobile’s proprietor got here out of labor.

“I begin my engine and my engine made the loudest rumbling noise I feel I’ve ever heard,” stated the sufferer Aubin, who solely shared his first identify. “To the purpose the place it scared me.”

After a fast look across the parking house, he seen one thing.

“I began noticing on the bottom round me all forms of scraps of metallic,” he stated. “I lookup beneath the automobile and I might see, like, wires and components hanging down from the automobile. First thought was somebody got here and took the catalytic converter.”

They’d. In broad daylight and in lower than two minutes, a staff of three made off with the expensive automobile half.

“There are three foremost components in a catalytic converter: platinum, palladium and robium. Very useful components,” defined Matt Tefka, proprietor of Fulton-Desplaines Storage. “They’re stealing them, flip them into completely different facilities that may pay for them, they usually transfer on to the subsequent automobile.”

At this level, mechanics say clients roaring in needing replacements for stolen catalytic converters is routine. And it is a pricey repair.

“A median of $1,000 is fairly commonplace. At this level we’re doing two to 3 every week,” he stated.

Final spring, an I-Staff investigation uncovered a pointy rise in such a crime. Information from the Nationwide Insurance coverage Crime Bureau discovered that in 2019 there have been greater than 3,300 catalytic converter thefts throughout the nation, however in 2020 that jumped to greater than 14,000. Illinois ranked fifth within the nation.

And sadly for drivers like Aubin, mechanics say Priuses appear to be prime targets.

“For no matter purpose Prius has a really expense converter in it and that is without doubt one of the few low to the bottom vehicles that these guys are completely going after,” Tefka stated.