School bus routes impacted by catalytic converter thefts

By Rob Polansky and Lezla Gooden

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    PLAINVILLE, Connecticut (WFSB) — School bus routes in Plainville were impacted by the theft of catalytic converters.

DATTCO confirmed to Channel 3 on Tuesday morning that catalytic converters were stolen off of 18 school buses.

It said that the buses were all smaller vehicles, but that it will cost the company thousands of dollars to replace everything.

“It is now going to cost us $3,000 a bus to buy new catalytic converters and there is delays on the supply chain, so I don’t know when I will be able to get them all done and also the labor time that goes into it,” said Byrony Chamberlin, vice president of school buses for DATTCO.

Thirteen routes were impacted. Other buses from outside of the district had to be brought in to help.

“We borrowed vehicles from New Britain and from South Windsor,” Chamberlin said. “We had spare vehicles parked, so no one will be impacted moving forward. We just had to rush today to move the vehicles around.”

The bus company said impacted routes were delayed by about 2 hours in the morning.

Larger buses were not impacted.

DATTCO told Channel 3 that a hole was cut into its fence at the bus yard in Plainville. The yard has 24 hour video surveillance.

Plainville police said they’ll be looking at some useful technology as part of their investigation.

“The person had to drive by houses,” explained Chief Chris Vanghele, Plainville Police Department. “We are looking at Ring Doorbells. They had to get to a major road to get back to where they came from, and we are looking at other businesses that might have camera footage that could at least give us a vehicle type.”

Police said they’re also looking into the possibility that there was more than one person involved in the crime.

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