Caddo Office Reimagined on Gaston Avenue. Photography by Renee Umsted.
When Garrett Johnson started his 2001 Mitsubishi Montero after work on Feb. 23, he noticed immediately how loud it was.
He left the lot outside Caddo Office Reimagined in Lakewood, where he has parked every day since he started working there, and drove for three or four minutes, hoping the noise would stop — “the fingers crossed and roll-the-dice move,” he said.
But the noise did not stop.
Johnson said he called his uncle, who knows about cars, and he told him to look where the catalytic converter should be. But instead of seeing a pipe, Johnson just saw two holes.
This theft, which occurred in daylight, was one of three incidents of stolen catalytic converters reported near the Caddo and Lakewood Tower buildings on Gaston Avenue. A device was stolen from a 2014 Ford Excursion on Feb. 10, and another theft occurred in January.
Security camera footage was available for both of the February thefts, but the thieves’ car was too far away to make out a license plate, said Tim Slaughter of Caddo Holdings, one of the building owners.
Catalytic converters are emissions-control devices that contain precious metals including platinum, palladium and rhodium. Their component metals make them targets, and with the proper tools, thieves can saw them off of a vehicle in minutes.
As many as 153,000 incidents of catalytic converter theft occurred in the United States in 2022, according to Carfax. Over the past couple of years, 32 states have adopted or amended laws to combat catalytic converter theft, USA Today reported.
A few catalytic converter thefts were reported at White Rock Lake last year, often targeting trucks or SUVs that sit high and are easy to crawl under.
Texas House Bill 4110, which went into effect in September 2021, increases criminal penalties for knowingly purchasing a stolen catalytic converter and adds requirements for metal recycling business that purchase the devices.
An additional security guard has been contracted to patrol the parking lots for the time being, and Slaughter said they are considering adding security cameras.
Johnson said he doesn’t think he’ll replace the catalytic converter. He’d need to if he wanted to get the car inspected again, but he said he’ll probably say goodbye to the “hunk of junk” and just purchase a new car.
“My car is essentially valueless,” Johnson said.
