Come have your car's catalytic converter identified for free: Montreal police

Moving company targeted An NDG moving company has been targeted by thieves just ahead of Moving Day.

MONTREAL — Montreal police (SPVM) is inviting car owners to come and have their car's catalytic converter identified, free of charge.

The operation will take place Thursday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Canadian Tire store on Henri-Bourassa Boulevard East, near Lacordaire Boulevard in the borough of Montreal North.

This isn't the first time this has been done. At the end of April, Longueuil police (SPAL) held two similar operations after authorities lamented the theft of catalytic converters was becoming a plague.

Catalytic converters are part of the exhaust system, often sought after by criminals because of the rare metals they contain. They take little time to remove, but are expensive to replace.

Montreal police says the identification process should take between 10 to 20 minutes.

A technician will affix a tag to the catalytic converter, with a unique identification number and a code that links to a secure, accredited database.

Both the identification number and the code will be etched into the catalytic converter using a specially designed fluid to ensure the part remains identifiable, even if a thief manages to remove the tag.

Montreal police says it may hold other identification operations in the future.

In recent months, numerous arrests have been made in Quebec, as well as in the three Maritime provinces, to dismantle multiple networks of catalytic converter thieves.

-- This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on July 8, 2021.