Thieves steal catalytic converters from buses owned by Belleville high school district
Thieves broke into a bus lot owned by Belleville Township High School District 201 late Thursday or early Friday and stole the catalytic converters off 17 school buses.
Preliminary estimates put damages at close to $100,000, according to Superintendent Brian Mentzer.
“These are our smaller buses that primarily transport special-education students and early childhood students, not large buses,” he said Friday afternoon.
A “large presence” of Belleville Police Department officers showed up Friday morning to gather evidence and review video from surveillance cameras in hopes of finding those responsible, according to Mentzer.
Assistant Chief Mark Heffernan, the department’s spokesman, didn’t immediately return a call for comment Friday.
The school buses were parked on a lot off Mascoutah Avenue, where Belleville Schools Transportation Services are headquartered. The thieves gained access by cutting the fence in back, according to Mentzer.
“It would appear in this situation that they were using a battery-powered saw (to get the catalytic converters),” he said. “That’s the assumption that we’re making right now after analyzing what they left.”
The thefts were discovered early Friday morning, when district employees were unable to start the buses before school. They quickly switched to buses in their reserve fleet with only a “slight disruption,” according to Mentzer.
“We did some combining of routes and made some slight time charges for pickups in order to meet the need,” he said. “... It was just a little hectic around the garage for the ladies who do the routing.”
District officials believe all the buses can be repaired.
“We don’t have an exact amount yet, but we’re estimating the losses could be upwards of $100,000,” Mentzer said. “... With losses as significant as this, we would probably resort to using our insurance.”
A catalytic converter, which resembles a small muffler, converts hazardous exhaust emissions into less-harmful gases. The devices are made of rhodium, palladium or platinum, whose values have skyrocketed.
Catalytic-converter thefts have been on the rise for years across the United States.
A new law on catalytic-converter sales designed to slow the trend took effect in Illinois last year. It requires businesses to keep specific records during acquisition and disposition.
Illinois Secretary of State Police charged a Belleville man with two misdemeanors last fall after seizing 287 catalytic converters from his employer, a scrap-metal dealer in East Alton.
This story was originally published January 13, 2023 at 4:22 PM.
