Car sellers, mark your engines: New law requires anti-theft cautions for converters
FILE PHOTO
A photo from March 2021 shows some of the 250 stolen catalytic converters seized in a California bust. The pollution control devices are increasingly being ripped off from cars everywhere, including Maine.
State law will soon require that Maine car dealers, truck dealers and other businesses engrave pollution control devices under nearly every vehicle as if the components were pieces of jewelry.
An apt comparison, given the skyrocketing rise in thefts of catalytic converters. In Portland, for example, police have warned of several sprees of converter rip-offs, as recently as April.
Legislation signed by Gov. Janet Mills that month created engraving and marking requirements for the converters, which increasingly are stolen from vehicles and sold for exorbitant prices. The law requires anyone who sells a car or truck with a converter that is visible to permanently mark it with the vehicle’s identification number. The requirement goes into effect Aug. 8.
Thieves take the converters because they contain rare metals, such as platinum, palladium and rhodium, that are sought by metal recyclers. A single converter can fetch several thousand dollars on the black market — but will set you back at least $1,000 if you have to replace it.
Catalytic converters are pollution control devices that have been required on all U.S. cars and trucks since 1975, and are mounted under most vehicles in the exhaust system. The converters are relatively easy to remove, and buses, box trucks and similar commercial vehicles are often targeted because their ground clearance makes theft even easier, experts say.
The state on Monday issued guidance on the new law, including details.
- New and used car dealers must engrave the full VIN of a vehicle on a catalytic converter unless the vehicle is sold at wholesale, or the catalytic converter is not in a location where it is clearly visible from the underside of the vehicle.
- Recyclers must engrave or permanently mark either the full VIN or the recycler’s license number and stock number
- Recyclers removing catalytic converters for final disposal or deconstruction must mark the catalytic converter with the recycler’s license number and maintain a record of the catalytic converter and the method by which it was disposed
- Private individuals who remove an unmarked catalytic converter from a vehicle (other than temporarily for maintenance or repairs) must engrave or permanently mark the catalytic converter with the full VIN.
The law also includes limitations on the purchase and sale of catalytic converters by recyclers, establishes record-keeping requirements, and provides guidelines for final disposal, deconstruction and transportation of catalytic converters.
“For victims of catalytic converter theft, this has been an infuriating trend,” said Secretary of State Shenna Bellows. “The Bureau of Motor Vehicles, particularly our Enforcement Division, is proud to work with our counterparts in law enforcement, vehicle sales and recycling around the state to implement this new law and provide some peace of mind to Mainers who are worried they may be next.”
Full text of the new law is available here.
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