Montco Police: Hybrid Vehicles Also Subject To Catalytic Converter Theft

UPPER GWYNEDD, PA — Local police are reminding vehicle owners to be vigilant as cases of catalytic converter theft continue to be on the rise in the region.

In fact, local police are now saying that the vehicle exhaust system component is even being stolen from hybrid vehicles such as the Toyota Prius.

"Over the last few months there has been a significant increase in the number of catalytic converter thefts from all over this region," the Upper Gwynedd Police Department in Montgomery County posted in a Facebook message Friday. "While trucks and commercial vehicles were initially targeted, the latest trend is to remove them from Toyota Prius'. Yup, you read that right!"

Upper Gwynedd Police say there have been several reported thefts from Prius owners in the last several weeks and officers are urging owners of hybrid and other vehicles to park them in residential driveways as opposed to public streets, if at all possible.

The department says that while many of these types of thefts happen during the nighttime hours, there have also been cases of catalytic converters being stolen from vehicles during the day.

In one recent case, Upper Gwynedd Police stated, a Prius that had been parked on the street was targeted while two nearby cars that were parked in driveways were not victimized.

Incidents of catalytic converters being stolen from hybrid vehicles as opposed to simply regular gasoline powered vehicles is not that new.

Back in November of last year, Kelley Blue Book published this article on its website to warn about the increase in cases of catalytic converter theft from hybrid vehicles like the Toyota Prius.

According to that article, it's actually not at all surprising to learn thieves have been increasingly targeting hybrid vehicles, since the catalytic converters in hybrids actually contain a higher concentration of previous metals than those found in gasoline-only cars.

Kelley Blue Book says that the catalytic converter from a 2007 Toyota Prius, for example, can sell for about $1,022 today on the black market as opposed to thieves fetching merely around $143 for a catalytic converter taken from a Ford F-150 of the same year.

Newer models of the Prius, however, use a different catalytic converter design, KBB stated, which doesn't fetch as high of a price for thieves who steal the automotive part to make money off of the previous metals contained within the item.