A Midas shop in Fresno, California, is offering etching services for catalytic converters, according to ABC 30.
The city passed an ordinance this year that makes it a crime to have a detached catalytic converter in a person's possession without proper proof of ownership for the car part. Midas will etch a customer's VIN into the catalytic converter in an effort to combat theft and track potentially stolen parts.
"Which as a result, if they do get stolen, at least offering a better chance of recovering, they do they get back to the person that owns it, only because they're very expensive," Roy Rodriguez told ABC 30. "Converter replacement costs anywhere from like 1,000 bucks on up."
Additionally, Fresno is a part of the California Statewide Catalytic Converter Taskforce, which aims to reduce theft on a local and statewide level. ABC 30 reports that, according to Fresno police, there have been 375 catalytic converter thefts this year. This number is down from last year, which reportedly sat at over 1,600.
