By ALEXANDER SIMONE

Staff writer

Hillsboro police are investigating a pair of catalytic converter thefts that occurred over the weekend, one at Lang Diesel, and the other at Carquest Auto Parts.

“It’s basically a day without the vehicle, plus now we have to take it to the repair shop,” Carquest manager Bob Williamson said. “It’s a pain.”

The thefts were especially brazen when considering the one at LDI was done out in the open, manager Brian McMillen said.

“Where they cut that off would have been 10 feet from one of the main streets,” he said. “This was done right out in front of everybody, probably at night.”

Hillsboro police confirmed that the thefts likely happened between Saturday night and Sunday morning.

In both instances, it was company pickup trucks that had their converters cut out.

“It’s probably more of an issue with pickups because they won’t be able to fit underneath there with cars,” McMillen said.

The theft wasn’t noticed at LDI immediately since the pickup truck isn’t used every day, but staff at Carquest noticed something was wrong with their vehicle right away.

“We use ours every day,” Williamson said. “That’s how we found out, we started it and it was really noisy.”

While Carquest is looking at increased security measures, Williamson said it’s difficult to guard against thieves.

“It’s unfortunate,” he said. “The only thing we can do is keep eyes out and look out ourselves and our neighbors. If you see something, say something.”