The Salvation Army, Catholic Charities of Southern Missouri, and Fisk Transportation all say thieves stole the catalytic converters from their vehicles this week.
The vehicle parts are valuable because they often contain high-dollar metals like rhodium or platinum.
Steve Roberson with the Salvation Army in Springfield said their truck’s catalytic converter was stolen Wednesday night in front of the nonprofit’s thrift store on South Campbell. The Salvation Army uses its truck to make up to 250 stops a day to deliver food and clothing to families in need, he said.
“That seems kind of evil to me that they’re picking on nonprofit agencies and are keeping people from eating and being warm, but that seems to be what’s happening,” Roberson said.
Fisk Transportation, which supplies the Bear Line shuttle buses at MSU, had eight buses robbed of their catalytic converters in an overnight theft this week, according to operations manager Bill Baehr.
And Travis Comfort with the auto repair shop Rick’s Automotive in Springfield told KSMU his shop is seeing an average of two cases of stolen catalytic converters a day.
John Lunardini, senior vice president of operations for Catholic Charities of Southern Missouri, told KSMU their truck also had its catalytic converter stolen a few days ago. That truck is used for disaster recovery, various programs, and delivering donated items to those in need.
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