Eureka Police are trying to identify a man suspected of stealing a catalytic converter off a Rockwood School District maintenance van. The man allegedly used a stolen pickup to pull the converter from the van, authorities reported.
The white 2004 Ford F-250 pickup was reported stolen between about 6:30 p.m. Jan. 25 and 6 a.m. Jan 26 from outside the Fox Chase Apartments in the 1500 block of Fox Chase in Arnold. Then a man was seen in surveillance video at about 4:30 a.m. Jan. 27 driving the pickup onto the parking lot outside the Rockwood School District maintenance department building, 556 N. Central Ave., the Eureka Police reported.
The man got out of the pickup and attached one end of a metal chain to the hitch on the pickup and the other end to the catalytic converter under a 2005 Ford Econoline E-150. He then got back into the pickup and allegedly drove forward several times until the converter was pulled from the van, the report said.
The man then reportedly got out of the pickup, picked up the converter and put it into the pickup bed before driving away. The cost to replace the converter was estimated at about $1,500, Eureka Police reported.
Arnold Police reported the F-250 was recovered on Jan. 29 in the 1500 block of Lakewood Landing in Imperial. Officers found receipts from the Casino Queen in East St. Louis, and an investigator reviewed video surveillance from the casino and saw a man get out of the pickup on Feb. 11, but the man has not been identified, Arnold Police Cpl. Brett Ackermann said.
Eureka Police Lt. Michael Werges said his department also has not identified the man seen in the surveillance video from the maintenance department building.
Anyone with information about the incidents should call either Arnold Police at 636-296-3204 or Eureka Police at 636-938-6600.