KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The Knoxville Police Department said they got five reports of catalytic converters stolen from cars at dealerships in West Knoxville. Four converters were stolen from Toyota of Knoxville and the other was stolen from Ted Russell Ford. Both dealerships are on Parkside Drive.
Andy Bolt, the sales manager at Toyota Knoxville, said some of the cars were at a facility owned by the dealers across the street from the Toyota Knoxville dealership.
The dealerships noticed the thefts around 2:30 p.m. on Monday, according to the incident reports. The reports said the values of the stolen catalytic converters were between $1,500 and $4,000.
Jason Bergeron said he dropped his truck off for service at the Toyota Knoxville dealership last week and got a call on Monday about a piece of his car being stolen.
"Over the weekend, I guess apparently they had a theft," Bergeron said.
Toyota of Knoxville told Bergeron they wouldn't pay to replace the catalytic converter. Toyota of Knoxville said Bergeron signed a liability waiver and because the theft happened on private property, insurance should cover it.
"I'm going to have to pay another $500 and file a new claim through my insurance to try to get it fixed," he said.
Bergeron also said he wished Toyota of Knoxville took more security measures.
"I felt that they left all of our vehicles in an unsecured location, knowing that there's a problem here in Knoxville," he said.
Toyota of Knoxville said they had security cameras, a fence and a security guard at the parking lot where they kept his car.
Knoxville police recommend parking cars in high-visibility areas, with security cameras to avoid catalytic converter thefts.