Bulging in the exhaust system like a rabbit deep in the belly of a boa, the catalytic converter cleans engine fumes before they are released into the air. To the inexperienced, the oversized metal cylinder looks rather uninteresting. To a thief, it is a pod of precious metal worth nearly $200 on the black market.Catalytic converters are loaded with small amounts of precious metals including platinum, palladium and rhodium. When combined with hot exhaust gasses, a chemical reaction detoxifies the pollutants (this all happens without any trip to a Malibu clinic). All the average Joe really needs to know is that every car and truck is supposed to have one.
This low-lying fruit for the criminals hangs within easy reach under many sport-utility vehicles. Sitting taller than your average passenger car, their cats are easy to steal, and often don't even require the vehicle to be lifted for access. According to police, the Toyota 4Runner and Kia Sportage are the running favorites.
Unless it is your normal dwelling, there is no need to sleep underneath your vehicle with a shotgun; innovative consumers have found that spot-welding the catalytic converter to the rest of the exhaust system has proven to be an effective deterrent.
[Source: MSNBC via Winding Road]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Egon @ Feb 16th 2008 9:21AM
"innovative consumers have found that spot-welding the catalytic converter to the rest of the exhaust system has proven to be an effective deterrent"
Oh really? For quite some time now, innovative thieves have been leaving their socket wrenches at home and grabbing Milwaukee's finest instead. No, no...not the beer. A Sawzall.
And for those that might think I'm giving the miscreants some new ideas, trust me, they've already got this 'secret' figured out.
Mobius_1 @ Feb 16th 2008 9:37AM
So this is the next big thing to steal after all alloy rims have been fitted with locking bolts. What's next? Door? Mirrors?
Marvelous @ Feb 16th 2008 9:47AM
$200 on the black market my ass. You can get a brand new cat for that price. A friend I work with had tech and Toyota tell her she was going to need a new cat. He said it would be $800, his explanation was,"Its got platinum and stuff in it" Oh, and that was only the price of the part, installation would bring the grand total to $1100 This was for a 2002 Corolla, she told me that and I laughed my ass off. I told her to call anything muffler shop in the phone book and I bet it not going to come close to $500 with labor. She got quoted $360 on the first call. I guess platinum is only that expensive at a dealership LOL.
tankd0g @ Feb 16th 2008 10:01AM
Ya I think the $200 is pure BS, there's dozens of cats for scrap on ebay and they never go for anything near that.
Brill @ Feb 16th 2008 9:49AM
i was living close to Indy last year and it was on the news then. They said the Tundra (previous gen at the time) was one of the few trucks that had two cats so they were targeting those first. i guess driving a sports car that sits a few inches off the ground helps haha...though if they wanted them they could take them :-/
Andrew @ Feb 16th 2008 9:49AM
If I found a thief under my car with a sawzall hacking at the bend, I'd laugh my ass off...right before I detained him and called the authorities.
tankd0g @ Feb 16th 2008 10:03AM
I'd hit the remote starter button.
JayP @ Feb 16th 2008 9:53AM
Correct. In fact, the local Fox news showed how easy it was to cut exhaust with a saw.
Now everybody know the secret.
tankd0g @ Feb 16th 2008 10:01AM
Hah, good luck with mine. I've never been able to get one of these off without a cutting torch.
Paul P. @ Feb 16th 2008 10:52AM
Good thing I don't have cats, haha.
Evander O. @ Feb 16th 2008 11:03AM
2nd that haha
prevention is the way to go.
lithdoc @ Feb 16th 2008 11:38AM
Catalytic converters in auto parts stores go for below $100
J @ Feb 16th 2008 11:46AM
yeah, even if it wasn't welded I would imagine this would be the preferred method.
Pilo @ Feb 16th 2008 11:47AM
The writer really missed the point here and is obviously not smart.
The if you know New York, people don't steal catalytic converters here like peasants! ...
They steal airbags! Breaking windows and unscrewing airbags. Much more value.
MoonRover @ Feb 16th 2008 12:03PM
A woman was arrested last week in Jackson, Mississippi for using the saw to steal over 200 converters. She was they believe, one of several members of a gang stealing the converters, yes they are sawing them off.
jcar302 @ Feb 16th 2008 12:14PM
A sawzall on metal pipe is loud, i know i use one at work to cut metalic piping. Not exactly the stealth way to steal anything.
Funny this story came up, i wanted to build a custom pipe for one of my vehicles in 2.5 inch. So i went to the junkyard so i could get an h pipe from the same truck so we could do a duplicate on the bench, and the guy there told me that they get hundreds of dollars for them, and it's the first thing they take off the cars.
I'm still not buying it, if cats were worth so much money,how exactly do you get good new aftermarket cats for $75 each that work perfectly fine?
If their numbers were correct, any aftermarket mid pipe with cats would have to start at $400 minimum, and that's not including any pipe, labor or flanges.
Level @ Feb 16th 2008 12:53PM
I guess you guys forgot to see the point....
"There are three precious metals in this. The first precious metal is platinum, and platinum is valued at $1,298 an ounce. The second metal in this is palladium, which is $375 an ounce. And then there's rhodium that's $5,950 an ounce.Thieves make short work of removing them."
So they need to steal a good few converters to add up the values of the metals....
CompWizrd @ Feb 17th 2008 2:22PM
Platinum now sits at over $2000 an ounce. In the last month it's gone up about $500 an ounce. 5 years ago, it was around $600
http://www.kitco.com/charts/liveplatinum.html
Palladium sits at about 445 now:
http://www.kitco.com/charts/livepalladium.html
Rhodium is the real crazy one, sitting at 8650.. Five years ago it was 380 an ounce.
http://www.kitco.com/LFgif/rd00-09.gif
john @ Feb 16th 2008 1:33PM
I can only hope someone tries to steal my cats, maybe then I'll finally get a chance to put on that offraod H pipe haha
John @ Feb 16th 2008 2:44PM
My local news channel aired a story like this 6 months to a year ago. Crazy stuff.
I wonder how your average pipe-cutting thug thief finds a market for raw precious metals.