Vandals target Indianapolis woman’s car for catalytic converter

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — An Indianapolis woman credits her maintenance man for thwarting two thieves who tried to steal a catalytic converter from her Hyundai Santa Fe.

It happened May 25th near her apartment, South of I-70 near the split.

“I’m usually pretty aware of what goes on in my neighborhood everyday, and this one day, I was not downstairs,” Carrie Biggerstaff said.

She turned over surveillance video to police showing two men driving up to her car and trying to remove the converter with an electric saw.

The converter was half way removed before the maintenance man interrupted the vandals.

“The same thing happened to my neighbor a few months back,” Biggerstaff said. “Me and my boyfriend were actually discussing the idea of cutting off my catalytic converter first, and replacing it with an after market. It’s like we had that feeling it was going to get cut,” she said.

A catalytic converter is an attachment on your car that filters out toxic gases and pollutants. It also has valuable metals inside that are prime targets for crooks.

It could costs hundreds, if not thousands of dollars to replace catalytic converters depending on the type of vehicle you have.

Biggerstaff is worried the same thing could happen again if the suspect isn’t caught.

“You may not have stolen and achieved your goal, but you might have gotten somebody, after you came messing with my stuff,” Biggerstaff said.

On March 7th, Governor Holcomb signed a bill making it illegal for non-licensed scrap dealers to sell catalytic converters.

Stealing a catalytic converter in Indiana is a felony.