Jan. 24, 2023—Over the weekend, 38 catalytic converters were stolen from fleets of school buses in East Hartford, Conn.
According to WFSB, police said that 26 catalytic converters were taken from buses at Autumn Transportation and 12 were stolen from buses at the First Student, Inc. lot. These thefts occurred sometime between Jan. 20 and Jan. 23. As of the time of this reporting, no suspects have been publicly confirmed.
Joseph Piscitelli of Autumn Transportation told WFSB that the first stolen catalytic converter was discovered when team members tried to start up one of the buses on the lot. Autumn Transportation is now looking into additional security methods on its lot.
“It’s nerve-wracking, you know, because they are just taking them all from everywhere,” Piscitelli said to WFSB. “From us, from other companies, personal, all that.”
Autumn Transportation borrowed buses from other lots to avoid cancelling any of its routes. First Student told WRSB that its routes were not impacted either and its maintenance team is working to get repairs underway.
