Catalytic converters worth $24K stolen from 8 Clover, SC school buses, officials say
Thousands of dollars in damage has been done to eight Clover school district buses because the catalytic converters were stolen, officials said.
The cost to fix the eight activity buses is around $24,000, according to a York County Sheriff’s Office incident report. Each activity bus had two catalytic converters that were taken, deputies said.
Clover school district officials found the damage Monday. The buses were parked near Clover High School. Surveillance video recovered by deputies showed the thefts likely happened over the weekend, a sheriff’s office incident report stated.
No suspect information was available.
The buses are not used for daily school bus routes, but are used for activities such as sports, said Bryan Dillon, spokesman for the school district.
“This is a serious case of vandalism to school property,” Dillon said.
Crime scene investigators found a saw blade in the area where the buses were damaged, the incident report stated.
The sheriff’s office assigned detectives to case but as of Tuesday no arrests have been made, said Trent Faris, sheriff’s office spokesman.
Catalytic converter theft a local problem
Law enforcement officials say catalytic converter theft has risen in recent years as thieves target the exhaust parts for precious metals. The previous metals such as platinum, palladium, and rhodium can then be resold.
In York County, the number of thefts went from zero reports in 2018 to 117 thefts in 2019 and 2020, according to sheriff’s office statistics. In those cases 192 converters were stolen.
In June of 2019, sheriff’s office Lt. David Frye arrested a suspect in the act of cutting converters off cars at an auto dealership on Saluda Road outside Rock Hill.
In November 2020, York County Sheriff’s Office property crimes detectives made several arrests when more than 20 illegal converters were seized.
In neighboring Lancaster County, thefts rose so sharply in 2020 Sheriff Barry Faile issued a public service advisory to warn the public about the problem.
Sheriff Kevin Tolson in York County and Sheriff Barry Faile in Lancaster County urged people to park vehicles in well-lit areas, add surveillance cameras to help investigators identify the people cutting the converters, and watch for any suspicious activity.
South Carolina legal changes
The catalytic converter in most vehicles is under the vehicle as part of the exhaust system and can be cut off with a saw or torch.
The rise in crime for converters spiked so much statewide in 2019 the S.C. General Assembly passed a new law in 2020 that made it illegal to carry catalytic converters without proper documentation or sell them to anyone except metal recyclers. To sell to a recycler, the seller must have documentation that the converter was legally obtained.
The new law went into effect in May 2020.
