Police in several Chicago-area suburbs are investigating multiple reports of catalytic converter thefts happening in the parking lots of various schools.
Administrators said thieves targeted at least two cars parked at Rolling Meadows High School for catalytic converters. An email went out to parents of High School District 214 on Tuesday alerting them to the crime.
“Schools are a large parking lot population,” said Channahon Police Deputy Chief Adam Bogart. “During the day there’s plenty of areas to hide. These are schools with thousands of students inside of them so they just provide a greater opportunity. I don’t think it has anything to do with students specifically but just the fact that there’s a large amount of cars that provide them with an opportunity to get easy steals.”
The deputy chief told NBC 5 a similar incident happened around 2 p.m. Tuesday at Minooka South High School. There, thieves targeted four vehicles in the school's parking lot.
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“Officers were able to develop a suspect vehicle that was likely involved in that theft, in all those thefts, and it appears to be a vehicle involved in several other thefts throughout the suburban landscape,” he said.
Channahon police released a surveillance picture of the suspect’s vehicle described as a black Audi Q-7 and believe its connected to multiple thefts reported at Joliet West High School, Joliet Junior College, and Minooka.
“We have not been able to develop any individual suspects to this point,” said Bogart. “However we are working with other agencies in the area to do so.”
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Several vehicles were also hit at the main campus of Harper College last Monday. According to Harper College Police, a man in a black ski mask was seen getting into a black sedan with license plate DL 5674. That same plate was captured on video Tuesday on the black Audi Q-7 in Channahon.
“There are known instances of these thieves being armed in other municipalities that has not occurred here to our knowledge,” said Bogart.
The deputy chief urged vehicle owners to take preventive measures by installing an anti-theft device on their vehicles, to check with their insurance company to make sure they’re covered for catalytic converter thefts and to always call 911 if they see anything suspicious.
“This is a crime that takes a matter of less than a minute in some cases,” he said. “The quicker we can respond to an area somebody seeing something occur—the better outcome we may have.”
