BATON ROUGE — A Houston man was arrested after allegedly telling police he did not realize he had nearly two dozen stolen catalytic converters in his car. 

Arrest documents say Nessiah Dunham, 22, was wanted for catalytic converter thefts in Livingston Parish when, on March 16, a Baton Rouge Police officer stopped him at a Mall of Louisiana parking lot. The officer found 21 catalytic converters in Dunham's car and arrested him on those charges out of Livingston, documents say. 

Dunham, who is from Houston, told law enforcement he was headed to Atlanta and didn't know the car parts were in his vehicle. 

After Dunham's arrest, the East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office tied him to three more catalytic converter thefts in Baton Rouge. 

Arrest affidavits accuse him of stealing the car parts from parking lots of apartment complexes on Bluebonnet Boulevard, Ben Hur Road and Mancuso Lane. 

According to the documents, Dunham could take a catalytic converter off a vehicle in just six minutes.