A Pennsylvania tow truck company named TDI Towing and its staff are been charged for partnering with thieves to run the business of buying stolen catalytic converters from vehicles on a daily basis throughout the Delaware Valley region.
According to theBucks County District Attorney, TDI, the towing company deals with thieves and pays at least $10,000 every night to buy stolen catalytic converters brought to their premises.
“On some nights, there would [be] 30 transactions with some thieves showing up more than once,” the DA said in a release. “On several occasions, TDI Towing paid $1,000 for a single converter.”
The DA said that TDI paid on average $300 per unit, and the criminal activity went on for three years, with an average of 175 catalytic converters coming in every week.
The rate of theft of catalytic converters spiked since the Covid pandemic. Disrupted supply chains saw the prices for the three main metals in catalytic converters; rhodium, platinum, and palladium, spike.
In a nationwide raid in November 2022, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland directed the execution of 32 search warrants which resulted in the arrest of 21 persons in the business of stolen catalytic converters.
The revelation was an eye opener then, prompting the US House to come up with a law that would stamp catalytic converters with serial numbers and stiffen penalties and laws around their theft.
The DA said the increased theft of catalytic converters made the Bucks County DA “began to focus not only on individual thieves, or ‘cutters,’ but also the organizations or businesses purchasing the stolen.”
The DA released a video of a just-stolen catalytic converter brought to TDI at night. The converter was still very hot.
“This is an example of a catalytic converter stolen so recently … that it was still too hot to handle,” Bucks County District Attorney Matt Weintraub said about the video.
The DA said most everyone charged was an employee or family relation to TDI owner Michael Williams, who was arraigned on felony charges. One of TDI’s alleged “cutters,” a TDI employee by day, had “several open warrants” for catalytic converter theft in Bucks County, “and would always flee back to Philadelphia when police attempted to stop him,” the DA said.
Another TDI worker had been convicted of stealing 22 catalytic converters and later failed to appear for sentencing.
The DA recalled an incident when thieves associated with TDI were caught in the act of stealing a catalytic converter, but the getaway driver drove toward the detective, crashed into a parked vehicle, and fled. “If the detective had not moved, he would have been pinned between the two vehicles,” the DA wrote.
In a statement, the DA said that TDI Towing and its employees have been charged with corrupt organizations, criminal conspiracy, dealing in proceeds of unlawful activities, theft by unlawful taking, theft of catalytic converter, theft by receiving stolen property, possession of an instrument of crime, and criminal use of a communication facility”.
