Crime & Safety

Some Residents Question Metra Lot Security After String of Thefts

Police say thieves are targeting certain cars to get catalytic converters and hub caps, and that the lot is difficult to patrol.

New Lenox resident Marsha Morgan got off the Metra after work last month, got in her GMC that she parks in the commuter lot and drove home before realizing the hub caps were missing from her car.

"I don't have a choice but to park there for work unless I go to another lot, and they could also be having problems," Morgan said. "I'm not too concerned it would happen to me again, but it does keep happening in that lot."

A string of recent thefts—about 13 reported to police over the last couple of months—in the Metra commuter lot at 300 N. Church St. has some residents saying there should be increased security in the lot where hundreds park their cars every day. But and Metra officials say it's not as easy as it might sound to simply patrol the lot more.

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The parts taken are typically hub caps or catalytic converters, which contain traces of one of three precious metals that have recently seen skyrocketing prices. According to a recent article in The New York Times, platinum is now trading at about $1,800 an ounce, rhodium at about $2,400 an ounce and palladium at more than $800 an ounce. The metals in the converters help cleanse emissions by turning toxic gases into less harmful exhaust at high temperatures. Thieves can saw these off cars relatively quickly, and then make a quick buck by selling them to scrap yards.

"Any time we have an area like that or large amounts of vehicles together, it can make it difficult to patrol," Deputy Chief Bob Pawlisz of the New Lenox Police Department said. "That type of location just appears to attract criminals."

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A lot of times, Pawlisz said, it can be a matter of having to catch a thief in the act. It can take almost 10 minutes to weave through the lanes of cars in the commuter lot while checking whether anything is going on between parked cars. Plus, the thieves can be gone in 60 seconds; they often target SUVs because they're easier to slide under, hack off a converter and get out.

But local mechanic Jeremy Harman, a store manager at , said security would help because someone would be able to at least hear the crime occurring.

"These people are cutting metal," he said. "You're going to hear that."

Harman added that despite the belief that welding parts to the car would prevent theft, it would only make it slightly more difficult. But the power tools used to cut off the converters would overpower any welding. He said he's had two people come into his shop in the last few weeks needing new converters, which can be $200 on the low end.

In November, a couple of catalytic converters were ripped off in the Metra lot, and when it happened again in February police asked the public to be aware in the lot and call police if they saw anyone suspicious. Over the following weeks, six cases of were reported, and one man said a CD player and GPS were taken from his car. Pawlisz cautions residents to put all valuables in the trunk or out of sight, but besides a sensitive alarm system, there isn't a lot that can be done to prevent theft of the car parts. Add it all up, and residents recognize there is a risk if they park there.  

"So apparently, no one's vehicles are safe at the Metra lot," resident Tisha Black Ebert said via Facebook. "Makes me worry when I get off the train each day as to whether or not my car will be there in one piece. I truly hope that the lot is being patrolled more often."

With more than 200 stations across the metro area, Metra officials say a permanent security guard simply is not feasible, and that the lot is the village's responsibility first. Morgan proposed security cameras as a possible solution.

"It wouldn’t be hard to put a camera up," she said. "There's only two entrances, so you would see if there's a car coming. And the police should also be patrolling when it's not rush hour, because that's when (thieves) are coming."

The village has considered cameras before, Mayor Tim Baldermann said, but police would have to be absolutely confident it would help catch a criminal.

"To put cameras all over the lot is an extremely expensive proposition," he said. "And to just put them at an entrance ... thousands of cars go in and out of there every day. It would be really difficult to spot a person, and some of those people aren’t even parking in the lot."

New Lenox police are urging residents and those who use the Metra lot to be aware and to contact the department if they observe anything. The Investigations Division can be contacted at 815-462-6100 with any information, but people should call 911 if they see the crime being committed.

"It would be like winning the lottery observing to catch these people in the act," Pawlisz said in a previous article. "We just need the help of those using that lot to be observant and aware."


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