After a two-year investigation, prosecutors have charged a husband and wife with felonies for buying and selling stolen catalytic converters.
Brian and Amy Howard, owners of Howard Salvaging on County Road 8 near Bristol, have been charged with Level 5 Felony Corrupt Business Influence. They were booked and released from the Elkhart County Jail on Friday.
Court records say Elkhart County police started investigating the couple in January 2022 after a deputy pulled a driver over, and the driver said he had sold a stolen catalytic converter to the business. The driver showed the officer a receipt verifying the Howards had paid him $280.
The EPA has mandated the converters since 1975 because they remove pollutants from exhaust. Their thefts have plagued Michiana and the nation in recent years as they contain the valuable metals platinum, rhodium and palladium.
The National Insurance Crime Bureau, an insurance industry trade group, says thefts have begun to trend back downward after peaking at more than 64,000 in 2022, which marked a four-fold increase from 2020.
Court records say investigators found more than 500 converters at the Bristol business. They had been selling them to a business in Michigan. Prosecutors say the way the converters had been cut made it clear that they had been stolen, and salvage business owners would know this.
