How investigators cracked a multimillion-dollar catalytic converter theft ring

Jessica Laumeister dropped her Honda SUV off for service at a repair shop in Bucks County and soon got a call that someone had stolen the vehicle’s catalytic converter.

“I thought it would be safe there,” said Laumeister, 26, of Northeast Philadelphia. She had chosen the suburban shop because of its distance from the city. She thought it would be more secure — a mistaken assumption, she quickly discovered.

Laumeister is one of hundreds of people in the region who authorities say fell victim to a sophisticated multimillion-dollar catalytic converter theft ring run out of a Philadelphia tow yard that stole, sold, purchased, and resold catalytic converters. In June, authorities, after a yearlong investigation that included surveillance, undercover transactions, and high-speed car chases, announced charges of corrupt organizations, criminal conspiracy, dealing in proceeds of unlawful activity, and related offenses against 10 adults and one juvenile.

» READ MORE: Bucks County DA announces bust of $8.2 million catalytic converter theft ring

Between 2020 and 2023, prosecutors say, Michael Williams, the operator of TDI Towing in Port Richmond, and a cadre of associates stole at least 2,000 of the valuable car parts throughout Bucks County and beyond. Bucks County District Attorney Matt Weintraub dubbed Williams the “kingpin” of the sprawling operation that was spending a minimum of $10,000 per night on stolen converters.

The actual number of catalytic converters stolen could be much higher, said Manuel Gamiz, spokesperson for Weintraub’s office, and since the charges were announced in June, at least 200 people have contacted the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office to report such thefts.

Philadelphia has long been plagued by thieves who target catalytic converters — emissions-control devices that reduce the amount of harmful pollution in car exhaust — because of the precious metals they contain: platinum, palladium, and rhodium.

The rare metals — made rarer by supply-chain issues in the last few years, said Weintraub — fetch high prices in the resale market. The current price for approximately 31 grams of platinum is $911, $1,230 for that amount of palladium, and a steep $4,100 for that amount of rhodium, according to Johnson Matthey, a British chemical and technology company.

This year alone, there were 1,802 reported thefts across the city through Sept. 18, according to Police Department data. And that number represents a massive improvement over last year, when 4,173 converters were stolen in the same time period, according to Capt. Jason Smith and Lt. Brian Geer, with the department’s Major Crimes Unit.

Smith credits the “plummet” in thefts directly to the takedown of TDI Towing.

Geer served as the lead on the Philadelphia side of the investigation into the crime ring, working with more than two dozen law enforcement agencies, including the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office and national and federal agencies like the FBI, the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force, and the National Insurance Crime Bureau.

The takedown of the massive illegal operation was a yearlong sting complete with more than 5,000 hours of video surveillance and undercover sales of catalytic converters, and analysts identified at least 357 transactions, according to a presentment by a grand jury impaneled to investigate the crimes.

» READ MORE: What we know about TDI Towing and the Philadelphia-based catalytic converter theft ring

The investigation began about three years ago, when authorities noticed a spike in thefts of catalytic converters. Weintraub’s office was fielding myriad complaints of thefts, and his Auto Theft Prevention Task Force began to zero in on the phenomenon. The probe began small.

“It was analogous to working up the chain in a drug ring investigation,” Weintraub said. “Start with the little fish, the people on the outside, the people on the corners, to draw an analogy. And you work up the chain.”

And as they began to dig into the operation, Bucks County officials learned that the criminal acts extended beyond the borders of their suburban territory. They enlisted help from Philadelphia police, who helped them trace the thefts to the Port Richmond tow yard.

Philadelphia police had, through their own investigations, developed an “extensive list of suspects cutting catalytic converters” and places that were potentially selling them, said Geer.

As the Bucks County DA’s Office investigated thefts in its territory, many of the suspects identified were linked to TDI Towing and were ultimately charged in the theft ring bust, he said.

Bucks officials joined forces with Philadelphia police, who offered investigative support and drafted warrants for searches in the city, said Smith.

Detectives set up surveillance, installing a camera and two license plate readers at TDI Towing that identified the license plates of cars coming and going from the tow yard, along with facial recognition software and recordings of catalytic converter transactions.

Surveillance identified employees who purchased stolen catalytic converters and others who would go out and cut the converters to sell them back to TDI towing.

One employee, Eric Simpson, was identified by investigators as also working as a cutter, someone hired to shear catalytic converters from the underside of cars, the presentment said. Authorities tried to pull Simpson over several times, but each time ended in a high-speed pursuit, the grand jury said.

Using confidential informants, investigators coordinated six sales of catalytic converters to Williams and his employees, involving 17 catalytic converters, authorities said. Williams or other TDI employees paid $5,440 for the 17 converters, with an average price of $320 per converter.

At the same time a detective was testifying before the grand juryin June, a confidential informant sold a catalytic converter to Williams at TDI Towing for $600, according to the presentment. Hours later, law enforcement executed a search warrant at TDI Towing and found Williams and employee Patrick Hopkins, along with 60 catalytic converters and $3,000 in cash, the grand jury said.

Littered around the building were also reciprocating saws, grinders, and blades meant to cut through metal, the presentment said.

The 10 individuals and one juvenile have not yet faced a formal hearing, according to a spokesperson for the District Attorney’s Office.

In recognition of the scale of the alleged operation, Weintraub took the unusual step of also charging TDI Towing as a company to “send a very clear message that individuals are not going to be able to hide behind a corporate veil,” he said, and with the hopes of creating some sort of a path to restitution for victims of the theft ring.

In Pennsylvania, a corporation can be treated as an individual for criminal liability purposes if a high-ranking managerial agent committed the act on behalf of the corporation while acting within the scope of his employment or office there.

“This is so we can hold any lawbreaking entity criminally accountable, and thus prevent individual lawbreakers like Mike Williams from hiding behind a corporation to shield their criminal conduct,” Weintraub said.

Coley Reynolds, an attorney for Williams and TDI Towing, declined to comment.

The investigation is continuing, authorities said, and Weintraub and Smith both said there was more to come, including potentially targeting other groups that may be stealing the car parts.

For those who have had their car parts stolen, the cost of replacement and repairs can sometimes be in the thousands of dollars.

Laumeister spent around $1,000 to replace her SUV’s catalytic converter, with part of the cost going toward repairing damage left by the thieves, she said.

Although the catalytic converter has long been replaced, Laumeister said she now uses her car only for shopping and has been riding her bicycle for practically everything else. She still worries about the safety of her car and is making plans to prevent theft in the future.

“I’m already thinking about getting a new car,” she said, “and the first thing that’s going on that new Tacoma is a catalytic converter shield.”