Sen. Klobuchar highlights bill to combat catalytic converter thefts

MANKATO, Minn. (KEYC) - Last Saturday, Senator Amy Klobuchar made a stop in Mankato to meet with local authorities about the impact of rising catalytic converter thefts.

Sen. Klobuchar alongside Mankato Mayor, Najwa Massad and Director of Public Safety, Amy Vokal highlighter her bipartisan legislation, which would crack down on Catalytic converter thefts.

According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, catalytic converter thefts rose by over 325% from 2019 to 2020

The goal of the PART Act is to aid law enforcement by marking each converter with a traceable ID number and establishing converter thefts as a federal offense.

“Those numbers are going to help us the upping the penalty is going to help us putting the resources into law enforcements going to help and certainly cars that are designed to make it harder to steal, said Senator Amy Klobuchar, “The catalytic converter will be a major game change and I predict you’re going to start seeing that happen.”

In February, the City of Mankato joined a statewide program that helps car owners install labels on their catalytic converters in order to combat theft.

Copyright 2023 KEYC. All rights reserved.