INDIANAPOLIS — Nineteen Midas auto repair shops in central Indiana are offering to paint and etch your car's catalytic converter for free through Saturday, July 29.
The hope is that adding the identifying features will make thieves think twice about taking the car part.
That is because they are not cheap to replace.
Mike Nellinger knows this because he and his wife replaced their catalytic converter after it was stolen from a car parked in a hospital garage.
"It was an $800-ish kind of number," Nellinger said.
Nellinger said when his wife turned on the car, it made a really loud noise.
"She immediately shut it off, called me and said, 'There's something wrong with my car,'" Nellinger said.
That is why he is having their cars' catalytic converters etched with the last eight digits of the vehicle identification numbers and painted with high-temperature paint.
"If somebody takes it, there will be evidence that it's yours. I like that," Nellinger said.
A catalytic converter works as an air pollution filter. It takes the harmful gases created by the car and converts them into clean gases using pricey metals.
Chris Bruner, with Midas, said those metals are palladium, rhodium and platinum.
"That's where the value is, actually inside the catalyst inside the converters," Bruner said.
He added that people stealing these parts is a huge problem.
Nationwide, catalytic converter thefts went up 1,215% between 2019 and 2022, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau.
Thieves can get up to $250 per part.
"They do it efficiently. They do it quickly. So if you can stop that efficiency, then most of the time, you're going to thwart that theft," Bruner said.
Beck Service Center on the south side of Indianapolis thought the same thing.
Back in 2021, they showed 13News how they weld a cage over their customer's converter. That customer later shared surveillance video of the thieves leaving his truck alone after they saw the cage under the truck.
Scott Holeman, with the Insurance Information Institute, said drivers often need to run the claim through insurance.
"We've been told that some companies paid well over $100 million in catalytic converter thefts in those claims last year," Holeman said.
In Indiana, stealing a catalytic converter is a felony. If dealers knowingly buy the stolen good, they could be charged with a felony, too.
The non-promotion price for the etch-and-paint service is $19.99.
The central Indiana Midas locations participating in the promotion are located at:
- Anderson: 2208 E. 8th St.
- Brownsburg: 9 Commerce Drive
- Columbus: 2995 Central Ave.
- Crawfordsville: 105 E. South Blvd.
- Frankfort: 1541 E. Wabash St.
- Greenwood: 1688 Meridian Oaks Drive
- Greenwood: 1264 US 31 North
- Indianapolis: 6435 E. 82nd St.
- Indianapolis: 4301 S. East St.
- Indianapolis: 6184 N. Keystone Ave.
- Indianapolis: 214 S. Raceway Road
- Indianapolis: 851 N. Shadeland Ave.
- Lawrence: 8611 Pendleton Pike
- Lebanon: 425 Ransdell Road
- Mooresville: 125 S. Indiana St.
- Muncie: 1901 N. Martin Luther King Drive
- Plainfield: 2608 E. Main St.
- Shelbyville: 1611 East State Road 44
- Terre Haute: 2300 S. 3rd St.