Nonprofit falls victim again to catalytic converter theft
By Jarred Cruz
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SAVANNAH, Georgia (WJCL) — For the second time in two months, Employability has fallen victim to theft as catalytic converters have been stolen from its nonprofit vans.
Employability helps prepare people with Intellectual and Developmental disabilities for employment, and they rely on these vans to transport the people they serve.
Last month, 15 catalytic converters were stolen.
“At 6:30 a.m. drivers come in. They’re pretty far right now where they’re parking, and I could still hear from this building when the van started rumbling. I knew exactly what it was. He didn’t even have to call me”, said Michal Calonita, Director of Facilities and Transportation at Employability.
Over the weekend five more catalytic converters were removed.
“It seems to be a nationwide problem with the catalytic converters. There are precious metals that filter your exhaust, with the rise in the cost of these metals someone just grabs it and goes and it sells it,” said Calonita.
To prevent its vehicles from being targeted, members moved them to a visible location on Seawright and Eisenhower Drive, but thieves struck again.
“A couple of the vans are the same vans that were already stolen, so now we’re replacing the catalytic converter that we already replaced,” said Calonita.
CEO and President of Employability, Brendan Ferrara says that he was shocked and that the organizations will see delays.
“My heart sank for the second time in two months. In this case, we were unable to pick certain participants up. So, there is going to be a time period where we are not going to be able to serve them.
As the organization continues to try to repair the vans lost, they’re now seeing additional costs.
“With five more vehicles being hit and the four wheelchair vans, we’re probably talking about adding another $5,000 or $6,000 to the cost on top of what we had before”, said Ferrera.
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