Marked Cop Cars Targeted by Catalytic Converter Thieves In San Francisco

4 clearly marked police vehicles within the San Francisco Police Division fleet have been relieved of their catalytic converters this week by scrap steel thieves seeking to make a fast buck.

Despite the fact that this theft occurred in entrance of a police constructing in broad daylight, nobody is optimistic that the thieves shall be caught. One veteran of the pressure instructed Mission Local this wasn’t even the primary theft from police automobile at this location:

“On September 12, 2022 at roughly 1 p.m., a San Francisco Police Officer found a marked police truck parked within the space of 16^th Road and De Haro Road had its catalytic converter stolen,” confirmed the SFPD media relations division. “The officer inspected different police automobiles, and found that one other marked police truck and two marked police vans additionally had their catalytic converters stolen.”

The theft was particularly brazen as a result of it occurred simply outdoors the Particular Operations Bureau constructing at seventeenth and DeHaro, which homes the SWAT Group and Bomb Squad. And whereas there isn’t a signal proclaiming this a police construction, it’s, unsubtly, surrounded by many police automobiles. Alongside DeHaro and at a parking zone entrance on close by Carolina Road, indicators observe “police automobiles solely.”

“The folks participating on this exercise actually don’t assume a lot of the police in the event that they assume they’ll steal catalytic converters from one of the best of us,” stated an SFPD higher-up.

San Francisco is not any stranger to catalytic converter thieves. Final 12 months, a significant insurance coverage adjustor launched a startling report that such thefts jumped 175 p.c from 2020 to 2021. Thieves on the west coast haven’t any compunction about what municipal automobiles might undergo for there ill-gotten positive aspects. Thieves in Oregon hit 19 faculty buses, inflicting $70,000 price of harm. In Seattle, some cat thieves shot at involved residents making an attempt to cease some on-the-street thefts.