HOWE, Texas – Howe Police Sergeant Keith Milks arrested two men and a woman early Sunday morning on a variety of charges related to the theft of catalytic converters.
At approximately 4 a.m., an officer saw a gray 2017 GMC Yukon parked in front of a closed auto repair shop on the service road of U.S. Highway 75 in Van Alstyne. Sergeant Milks spoke with the three occupants and inside the Yukon he found multiple saws, burglary tools, and a catalytic converter which had been removed from a vehicle at a different location.
Milks arrested 23-year-old Tatum Hatcher and brothers Kinneth and Louis McKelroy, 23 and 20, and booked them into the Grayson County Jail on felony theft charges and for possession of burglary tools. Hatcher and Kinneth McKelroy are from White Settlement, Texas, and Louis McKelroy is from Denison.
Louis McKelroy was also booked into the jail for a parole violation warrant stemming from charges related to Assault of a Public Servant, and Kinneth McKelroy was charged with possession of methamphetamine.
Catalytic converters are exhaust emission control devices mounted on vehicles that have become a favorite target of thieves because of their ease of removal as well as their raw scrap value and the presence of trace amounts of precious metals like platinum and rhodium.
In 2021, Texas legislators enacted House Bill 4110 which increased the penalties for the theft of catalytic converters and imposed new regulations on scrapyards which are designed to curb the thefts.
To help deter thieves, the Howe PD recommends people park their vehicles in well-lit areas or inside a garage, install security cameras, and if they see suspicious activity around vehicles, immediately contact 911.