SILVIS, Ill. — Sanctuary Church in Silvis, Illinois is asking for the publics help after catching thieves on camera stealing a catalytic converter from underneath one of the church shuttles. It happened while the sun was still up, two men crawling right under the van, cutting out the part.
Senior Pastor Luke Levine says they realized the missing converter last Monday when they fired the van up to take a group of young members to an event. The loud noise alerted them to a problem. They crawled underneath and noticed the long pipe missing. Pastor Levine saying, “They came through the neighborhood behind us and cased out the vehicle first.”
You can see in surveillance camera footage from the church a man come through the bushes lining the church parking lot. He walks close up to the van, checks it out, and in about 30 seconds walks back towards the bushes and disappears. Pastor Levine saying, “A few minutes later their van pulls up and they just casually got out and one kind of watched and the other crawled under.”
He says it looks like they used an electric saw to cut the converter clean off. It’s the same thing Crawford Company saw just last week. Thieves cut one of their catalytic converters out of the bottom of a work truck two weekends ago.
The whole crime takes place in less that three minutes, the men pulling up around 8:28 pm and pulling away by 8:31 pm. Levine saying, “I think these thieves are desperate, they're bold and it doesn't seem like they really care because they did it in the daylight.”
The church uses the vehicle often, and so had to get it repaired right away. Levine saying, “It’s one of the vehicles we use frequently to pick up people with mobility limitations and senior citizens to bring to our services and events.”
Levine says it’s upsetting to have to pay for, but what is even more upsetting is people targeting a place that is around to help the community saying, “These thieves, they’re not just hurting us, they’re hurting the community that we’re trying to serve, and the local businesses that have been hit. Again, they’re not just hitting that business, they’re hitting the community that the business is trying to serve.”
The replacement cost the church just under $2,000. Police say footage wasn’t high enough resolution to read the license plate, but they were able to get a general description of the two men.
Levine describing them as, “Two white men, middle-aged, averaged height. You can see them in the picture, one is wearing a bandana over his face. It was an unmarked van, but it looked like a roofer’s van or a siders van. They had a couple of ladders on top.”
Levine is hopeful someone who sees the footage will be able to help. “Hopefully someone in the community will recognize the van or the owners of the van.”
The church has had catalytic converters stolen off shuttles before, but not in recent years. Levine says they are now looking at getting higher resolution cameras, but it’s an expensive task.