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Amid a catalytic converter crime wave in 2021, legislators tweaked the state’s laws banning the unauthorized sale or transport of scrap metals.
The following year, prosecutors put those changes to use. WW recently requested from the state a list of charges brought under laws affected by Senate Bill 803, which was designed to ease prosecution of people caught illegally trafficking in stolen catalytic converters.
What we found: In 2021, charges under those laws were brought in only one case. It was the theft of wiring and other scrap metal from an unfinished residential development in Forest Grove. 2022, however, was a different story. Prosecutors brought 65 charges in around a dozen cases.
And it appears that some of those prosecutions, at least, have made a difference.
In 2023, there was only a single charge, filed nearly six months ago, on Jan. 2. As WW first reported last week, that’s one of several signals that the catalytic converter theft spree is on the decline.
Gresham police report catalytic converter thefts are down 80% this year. In Portland, it’s harder to say, because police won’t. A spokesman for the Portland Police Bureau told WW last year that the bureau doesn’t have that data “on demand anymore” due to the high volume of public record requests. WW submitted a request for updated numbers May 31 and has yet to receive them.
Still, there’s ample evidence that the crime is down across Portland. “We still get a few,” says Jerry Clemmer, a mechanic at Darrel’s Economy Mufflers on Southeast 82nd Avenue, “but not nearly as much as we were.”
It’s helped that prices for precious metals contained in emission reduction devices have come back to earth after skyrocketing during the pandemic.
So, with the cat burglary wave receding, who actually got busted? WW reviewed the charges.
THE LAKE OSWEGO SYNDICATE
In August, Beaverton police busted a $22 million catalytic converter trafficking ring run from a suburban lake house. Its alleged ringleader, Brennan Doyle, 33, was a former Uber driver who allegedly teamed up with a few pals to purchase catalytic converters in bulk from street dealers, then shipped them cross country to New Jersey, where a separate criminal ring extracted the devices’ precious metals and sold them to a local refinery (“From Portland to Jersey,” WW, Nov. 20, 2022).
Doyle has been charged with 19 counts of the unlawful purchase of “metal property,” a misdemeanor, among other far more serious charges like racketeering and money laundering. His attorney withdrew from the case in April, and Doyle is waiting to be assigned a public defender. Five of Doyle’s associates also face scrap metal charges in Washington County.
THE BEND KINGPIN
Doyle, however, wasn’t the Oregonian hit with the most scrap metal charges last year. That honor goes to 25-year-old Cedrus King, who was arrested in Bend late in 2022 (he kept a residence in Medford) and charged with trafficking $7 million in catalytic converters. Medford police said he was a “key player” who bought up the stolen car parts and, like Doyle, shipped them out of state.
He now faces 22 scrap metal charges, as well as racketeering. Prosecutors have asked for an “enhanced” sentence given King’s lack of remorse for his alleged crimes. His trial in Jackson County is scheduled for September. He declined to comment through his attorney.
STREET-LEVEL RANDOS
The rest of the cases reviewed by WW appeared to involve street-level thieves who were caught with catalytic converters, sometimes red handed. Most were in Multnomah County. Generally, but not always, the scrap metal charges were attached to more serious felonies like first-degree theft or drug dealing.
In one typical example, police responded to reports of two men “slumped over” in an idling car parked at a McDonald’s along Northeast Halsey Street in the Gateway District last July. One had a meth pipe on the dashboard in front of him—and a sawed-off catalytic converter between his legs. Two other catalytic converters were in the car, as well as a baggie full of blue fentanyl pills. The driver, who had fallen asleep with his foot on the brake while the engine was still running, said one of the catalytic converters was taken from the very car he was driving, which he said his girlfriend had previously purchased from a dead man.
The car was registered to neither his girlfriend nor a man. He and the passenger were both charged with felony drug delivery and unlawful transport of metal property, a misdemeanor.
One of the men, Pavel Kuzik, is currently in prison after pleading guilty to a subsequent December hit-and-run in Washington County.
The other, Yuriy Zvozdetskiy, failed to show up to a court date in March. He has yet to be assigned an attorney. A warrant is now out for his arrest.
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that King faces two charges of racketeering. One of the two charges was dropped. He is now facing one.