CHICAGO (WLS) -- Car owners on the city's South Side are being alerted about a number of thefts involving catalytic converters from vehicles.
It's a problem as old as the devices themselves, environmentally-friendly exhaust scrubbers containing traces of precious metals that that lie exposed under a vehicle - and are easy to steal.
City Council wants to eliminate the market for them.
Scrap dealers better have their papers in order when selling to Barry's Metals on Cermak. As the signs say, they don't take stolen merchandise or unsubstantiated material from just anyone.
"We get people coming in trying to sell but we are not allowed to buy them, don't have the license, we don't know the value of them," said Donita Calin, Barry's Metals.
But others do, and a new city ordinance seeks to eliminate the business. Ald. Marty Quinn has sponsored an ordinance that prohibits secondhand dealers, junk peddlers and pawn shops from dealing in catalytic converters.
"When you hold people accountable with fines of $500-$2000, it allows a law to have teeth," Quinn said.
Chicago police have issued a community alert for the 9th Deering District after at least three catalytic converter thefts were reported this month:
Catalytic converters can fetch up to $150 quickly for their embedded platinum, rhodium and palladium. Motorists face bills of $750 or more to replace them, plus the inconvenience.
The mayor's office says Chicago victims are estimated to spend $1 million each year in direct costs to replace catalytic converters.