CLARKSBURG, Md. — At 5:18 a.m., Kyrica Veney's daughter woke her up to say she thought someone was stealing the car she had just bought that was parked right outside of her townhome.
"No way. Not in Clarksburg at five something in the morning," she thought.
The thieves hadn't come for the whole car, just a piece of it.
While her daughter was recording from their window, Kyrica watched in amazement as three masked men hopped out of a BMW and one slid under the Honda Accord with a metal saw and started cutting through the exhaust pipe to get the vehicle's catalytic converter.
"It's so violating," she said, clearly exasperated.
The three men sped off just as the sun was coming up. The whole thing was over in less than two minutes. They got what they came for.
Veney had poured a significant amount of money into the car. It was a gift to her son, his first car, that he would take to college in North Carolina.
Not anymore.
"I really have no choice but to get rid of it because the amount the repair shop quoted me is actually more than what the car is worth," Veney said.
Veney said she had heard about catalytic converter thefts, but not in Montgomery County and certainly not in Clarksburg.
"We've seen it getting worse and worse," said Eric Grandi, whose car was hit the same night just down the street from Veney.
"I looked under and saw the clean cuts and I knew I had been victimized," he said.
Sergeant Ijeoma Enendu says Montgomery County Police is tracking an increasing number of cases of catalytic converter thefts.
"Its not a hard lift for a thief," she said.
She tells WUSA9 there were 466 thefts in 2021. That number jumped to 722 in 2022. There have been 328 thefts so far this year.
Thieves are going after the platinum and rhodium that's inside.
"Those precious metals can range from $300 all the way up to $10,000," said Sergeant Enendu.
MCPD has started a free 'Etch and Catch' program where county residents can have their catalytic converter painted and etched with a serial number to make it a less attractive target for thieves.
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