GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) - Our recent reports about catalytic converter thefts in the area prompts a Green Bay company that developed an anti-theft device to reach out and help.

“It’s a serious problem and it’s continuing to increase, and that’s just those that are reported,” said Jeff Pierquet, Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Vehicle Security Innovators.

A rising issue of catalytic converter thefts in our community. As Action 2 News reported about an incident this spring at ASPIRO, a non-profit organization in Green Bay, that had four catalytic converters stolen from their vans for people with disabilities. The stolen car parts can cost about $1,500 each to replace.

Now, Vehicle Security Innovators, an automotive parts manufacturer in Green Bay, says they have a solution.

“We developed a device we call a CAT-RAP, which basically encapsulates the catalytic converter from underneath the vehicle. It’s designed to frustrate a thief, and buy enough time that they’re going to move on to an easier target. But what’s truly unique is it’s universal so the average consumer can install it on their own, at a very lost cost,” Pierquet said.

After six months of developing what they call a universal security solution to protect catalytic converters, Vehicle Security Innovators officially launched the device last week, called the “CAT-RAP.”

The company partnered with ASPIRO, after learning about the theft issues when we reported them back in April, and they’ve been testing their product out in ASPIRO’s vehicles for about a month now.

“It wraps the converter with steel cables and one of the challenges is doing it properly so it doesn’t rattle. But they’ve done a phenomenal job and it hasn’t had any issues at all. It makes it extraordinarily difficult to get the converter out if you do try to steal it,” said Lincoln Burr, president of ASPIRO.

Burr says since they’ve installed the device, they haven’t lost any catalytic converters in their fleet.

“They’ve put it into several vehicles, we’ve had absolutely no problems whatsoever, and so far it’s been working. I think we’re probably looking at doing the rest of the fleet over time,” Burr explained.

Anyone interested in the device can find more information here.

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