Thieves are stealing auto parts at the University of New Mexico, and they're doing it in broad daylight, police say.
Catalytic converters are especially coveted because thieves can get between $80 to $200 from each one they steal, KOAT News reported. Thieves are going after catalytic converters largely for the metals the converters contain.
"We've seen a lot of catalytic converters stolen on campus," Tish Young, a UNM police detective, told KOAT.
Catalytic converters are installed in all vehicles to lower emissions, and they're attractive to thieves because they contain such precious metals such as platinum and palladium.
UNM Police have received reports of 30 catalytic converter thefts since last summer, and Albuquerque police also have reported rising catalytic converter thefts, Young said.
Albuquerque Police confirmed to KOAT that 120 catalytic converters were reported of stolen in the city from Jan. 1 to July 20 last year.
To try to fight back, UNM's Safety Topic of the Month (STOMP) in September was "Catalytic Converter Theft Awareness and Prevention." In the promotion, UNM Police explained what a catalytic converter is, how it is stolen, how those thefts can be prevented and how bad the problem is.
Prevention includes installing a metal cover over vulnerable cut points, etching the vehicle's VIN number on the converter, parking vehicles in well-lit areas and reporting suspicious behavior or vehicles in the university parking lots, according to the STOMP promo. Students can report such incidents to UNM police with their cellphones, campus emergency blue phones or the Lobo Guardian App.
"Usually it takes two people," Young told KOAT News. "One is the lookout and one actually doing the stealing of the catalytic converter. If you see someone driving around a parking lot, there's two people in the car, please call us. As long as there's people out there buying catalytic converters, there's going to be thefts of them."