BENSALEM TOWNSHIP, PA —Like many communities in the Philadelphia region, Bensalem saw its share of catalytic converter crimes over the past few years.
But in the past year, Bensalem Police said the crime has declined “significantly.”
Bensalem Police and the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office said that getting a family that operated a catalytic converter theft ring in Bucks, Montgomery, and three other counties in the Philadelphia region off the streets was key to the decline.
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Six suspects —all family members —were sentenced on Monday for their roles in operating the multi-million-dollar catalytic converter theft ring throughout the Philadelphia region.
Sgt. Glenn Vandegrift said that Bensalem Police received 31 reports of catalytic converter thefts in 2023.
Find out what's happening in Bensalemfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
This year, the police department said that number is six reports so far in 2024.
“We believe that the members of the organized criminal enterprise who were arrested after a one-year investigation led by detectives with the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office and three dozen local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies in Bucks County, Montgomery County, Delaware County, Philadelphia, and New Jersey can be associated with the large number of thefts in Bensalem in 2023,” Vandegrift said.
The investigation found that TDI Towing had bought 27,300 catalytic converters for at least three years, an average of 175 catalytic converters a week, authorities said.
TDI employees were paid an average of $300 per catalytic converter, for a total of nearly $8.2 million during the three years, authorities said.
At that time, authorities said the theft of catalytic converters had skyrocketed in Bucks County and surrounding counties because of the money the catalytic converters could fetch at scrap yards.
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