Thieves in New York have been pretty busy swiping catalytic converters all across the state. You might be driving one of the popular vehicles that they target. Even the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles is warning New Yorkers about the skyrocketing catalytic converter thefts. It even introduced an initiative in early May to help stop the thefts.

The NYS DMV, law enforcement, the National Insurance Crime Bureau, and the Niagara Frontier Automobile Dealers Association demonstrated a new process involving traceable serial numbers being etched onto catalytic converters. DMV Commissioner Mark J.F. Schroeder said,

New car dealers have been hit particularly hard by these thefts. In addition to the cost to replace the stolen parts, these thefts often result in thousands of dollars in additional damage to the vehicle, which means a dealer has to wait to sell the vehicle or a new car buyer has to wait significantly longer to receive their vehicle. We are happy to help get etching kits into the hands of dealers to help them fight the scourge of catalytic converter thefts.

According to NerdWallet, catalytic converter thefts are low risk, since they don't take much time to steal and can be high reward, netting a few hundred dollars,

Thieves can steal this antipollution device in a matter of minutes and sell it to scrap metal dealers for several hundred dollars for the precious metals it contains.

Conversely, the replacement cost of a catalytic converter for unsuspecting car owners can be up to a couple of thousand dollars, according to CarBrain,

For most vehicles, the average cost of a catalytic converter repair is between $945 and $2475 including parts and labor. The catalytic converter cost itself can be up to $2250 of that.

According to CarFax, these 10 vehicles are the most popular vehicles thieves target in the Northeast to steal catalytic converters:

Catalytic converter theft has exploded – jumping more than 1,000% in just a few years! Thieves are removing catalytic converters from vehicles large and small, often cutting them away from directly beneath the vehicle. But which vehicles are most likely to be targeted? To find out, Carfax looked at service reports for catalytic converter replacements from more than 60,000 service shops across the country. We looked at service records from 2019 through the first three months of 2022.