The city of Humble is taking measures to protect its residents against catalytic converter theft with the unanimous approval of a new ordinance May 12.
According to City Manager Jason Stuebe, the newly approved ordinance amends Chapter 32 "Second Hand Goods," Article III "Precious Metals and Gem Dealers" of the city's code of ordinances, effectively requiring metal or junk dealers in the city to report any catalytic converters that may come into their possession to the Humble Police Department.
According to Stuebe, the ordinance mirrors a similar measure recently adopted by the city of Houston.
"We took it one step further, though, than the city of Houston did," Stuebe said. "It's also ... basically making it unlawful to possess a catalytic converter that has been effectively cut away from a vehicle. Typically, if [a catalytic converter] is lawfully removed, it's going to be unbolted and be attached to the rest of the exhaust system. ... Typically, most of your repair shops are not going to be cutting catalytic converters; they're going to be removing them the appropriate way. So that would be a misdemeanor that we would be able to [charge] someone with."
