INDIANAPOLIS — State Police arrested two Indianapolis women Saturday morning for allegedly stealing catalytic converters from disabled vehicles along Interstate 70.
Elizabeth Smith, 27, and Farrah Carpenter, 28, were taken to jail on preliminarily charges of felony theft and criminal mischief after troopers found them on the side of I-70 with a reciprocating saw and several catalytic converters in their Jeep.
According to a media release from ISP, dispatchers were monitoring INDOT traffic cameras just after 6:30 a.m. and reported suspicious activity around a vehicle on the shoulder of I-70 westbound near the 78.7 mile marker between Holt Road and Harding Street.
A trooper found two vehicles on the side of the road. One had been abandoned by someone, and two women were together in a Jeep Commander. A second trooper arrive and found two converters in the Jeep and the saw on the ground next to the abandoned vehicle.
Troopers located two other abandoned vehicles nearby and reported both of those vehicles had the catalytic converters cut off. Troopers then matched the two catalytic converters in the Jeep to the two other abandoned vehicles.
Police said the theft of catalytic converters from abandoned vehicles along central Indiana interstates is not uncommon, and remind motorists to only leave your vehicle abandoned if absolutely necessary, and return to get it as soon as possible.
If you see someone with a saw approaching a disabled or abandoned vehicle, try to get a description of the person or vehicle they are driving, and report it to police immediately.
