Thieves steal catalytic converters from moving van

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A skilled thief stole thousands of dollars’ worth of metal from some company trucks in Marietta Tuesday.

Marietta Police found nearby surveillance footage that shows a man pulling up to the parking lot at Boyd Road and Canton Road a little after 7 p.m. In the grainy video, the man slid under five of six parked Stand Up Guys Junk Removal trucks and removed the catalytic converters with some sort of metal cutting power tool. He took off in about 33 minutes.

Police reported this cost the company $7,500.

Cobb County Police said they've seen a few cases like this recently, but this is the only one for Marietta.

Every car has this part. Ryan Keane of Stand Up Guys Junk Removal said these parts can be stolen off of any car, but it's easier to get the parts off of the big trucks quickly with a bigger payout.

"People are stealing them for small amounts of valuable metal that the catalytic converters contain and they are either scrapping them at a scrap yard or selling them on the black market for upwards of $600," said Keane.

Crews noticed the loss Wednesday morning when they went to start work for the day. The group sent the trucks to get fixed immediately and paid out-of-pocket to avoid the hit to insurance. Keane said it cost them time and money impacting them from the hourly workers who couldn't work the day all the way to the company's bottom line.

"It was definitely a dent because we had to push other customers back and we weren't able to bring in new business for that following day," said Keane.

Typically, they said they have their trucks in secured locations. Stand Up Guys is moving their offices and had to park their trucks in this well-lit and video monitored parking lot for a few days and was taken advantage of. Now, those trucks are in a new and more secure spot.

FOX 5 News spoke to the National Insurance Crime Bureau about the thefts. They said they've had a few more cases reported recently, but new laws put out a couple of years ago make it more difficult for these criminals to sell the scrap metal, keeping the claims down.