SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – Alice Cheng and her family have lived at a secluded cul-de-sac in Clairemont for 25 years. During the early morning hours on the day before Christmas, she told ABC 10News that a the Grinch paid an early visit to her son’s 2007 Lexus.
“He went to take off that morning and there was like a loud sound, and he didn’t know what was going on. So, he called my husband and my husband said, ‘You got your catalytic converter stolen,’” Cheng said.
The theft would’ve set Cheng and her family back $2,500. But luckily with their insurance, they only had to pay $1,000.
“It’s not surprising because I have heard that a lot of people had been, you know, victimized, I guess. But it’s annoying. Yeah, sure it was right before Christmas,” Cheng said. “If we get hit here, like, anybody can get hit.”
And people are getting hit in Oceanside as well, as police announced their second high-profile arrest of catalytic converters thefts in a week.
One happening on Thursday morning after a high-speed chaseand another happening on Mondayafter the suspect were arrested not too far from Oceanside Police Department headquarters.
“The suspects don’t care about any victims. They don’t care about their financial burden. They don’t care about what day it is,” said Oceanside Police Det. Chris James.
One day that is of importance is Jan. 1, 2023 — CHP said that’s the day new laws go into effect in California to help prevent these thefts.
One specifically lists who can sell catalytic converters to those who buy used converters. The other require those people to keep records of year, make and model of the car from which the converter was removed.
“I think it’s a step in the right direction. But I also think that they need to have more staffing to be able to routinely inspect recyclers and making sure their playing ball correctly,” James said.
That hope is echoed by Cheng to help stop having more victims like her family.
“It depends on how much it’s enforced, how much funding our police force is given to back that up,” Cheng said.
Cheng said her family did file a police report and they were able to replace the catalytic converter that was stolen from her son’s car.
