Monday got off to a bad start for Stephen Smith.
“I was pretty upset, this is getting ridiculous,” said Brown, the operations manager for Brown's Interior Design in Boca Raton.
Over the weekend, someone took the catalytic converter off two of his box trucks.
“People are trying to make money any way they can, unfortunately this is one of them,” Smith said.
He added this is the second time someone ripped out a catalytic converter in the past six weeks.
Replacing them and making repairs costs big money, nearly $7,000 per truck, according to Smith who said insurance does help cover some costs.
He's not the only one forking over big money. Police believe thieves hit five trucks at another business along Rogers Cirlce last weekend.
“I think they got a bunch of them out there doing it and they know the easy pickings and unfortunately we were part of the easy pickings,” Smith said.
“It's the golden ticket as far as scrap metal,” explained Drew Kesnig.
He runs Absolute Automotive in Boca Raton. He said people can make money selling catalytic converters to scrap yards and metal recyclers. He’s had one car come into his shop after someone stole the part.
“It has a lot of precious metals inside of it, platinum, palladium. People take it, they steal it,” Kesnig said.
He said a car or truck will run without it’s catalytic converter, but it will be very loud. The converter is part of the exhaust system.
Today the price for scrap metal is way down, so Kesnig estimates a catalytic converter would earn someone around $20 at a recycler.
In 2012, Florida added regulations to the scrap metal industry in an attempt to prevent thefts like this.
Smith is taking extra steps to make sure he isn’t hit a third time.
“We're gonna get some cameras and hopefully the signage will work to deter them,” he said.
If you have information, call Boca Raton police at 561-338-1234.
Crime alert: @BocaPolice investigating 7 catalytic converters stolen from box trucks like this one over the weekend pic.twitter.com/bKkqAugK4Z
— Charlie Keegan (@CKeeganWPTV) August 31, 2016