Catalytic Converter Stolen

[Chatt69chgr]

Had the damnest thing happen last friday night.  Someone used a sawzall to cut out the converter on my son's 97 Nissan pickup.  He had left it parked in a grocery store parking lot after they were closed.  We called Midas and they were able to replace it the next morning for approx. $200.  Said they had 5 calls already for the same thing.  Obviously, someone got a Harbor Freight sawzall for Christmas and decided to put it to use.  We were told that these converters are bringing $50-$100 at the junkyard.  They have also been stealing peoples house HVAC units here---for the copper and aluminum.  I think as the economy worsens we are going to see a lot more of this stuff.  Plus, if gas gets any higher, I figure the ice pick/dishpan boys will start hitting again.  It's a war out there.   

[sick dawg]

I don't know where you live, but this has been a problem in my area for quite a while. The thieves like four wheel drive trucks best because they are easy to get under. They also like big apartment building parking lots where two or three of them working together can get a dozen or so in a few minuets and get out quick. I stopped these two suspicious characters one night and they had two battery powered sawszall and eight cats under a blanket in their back seat. On a few that I wrote up it cost the people up to six hundred dollars to get them replaced.
Remember depending how much they cut, sometimes more than the cat has to be replaced. This is in the metropolitan Washington D.C. area.

[Brock Samson]

this is a growing problem, they busted up a ring here a few days back... a couple links..

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/11/MNGGUD2FV.DTL&hw=converters&sn=005&sc=954

http://www.allpar.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=99585

   sucks... 

[70charginglizard]

This is one of the reasons why I never leave any of my vehilces outside during the night or park it anywhere where it's not in public view.

That really sucks and I too have heard about this but the only thing you can do is what I've said above and hope for the best.

[DodgeByDave]

I caught a trio of these clowns last summer, held them at gunpoint until the police arrived. They are doing time now.

All of the scrap metals are up in price, due in part to the chinese demand for base resources.

Bah, don't blame the economy. The thief chose to steal. It's lack of moral upbringing that brings people to steal.

These boys are damn lucky this wasn't out in the country, I would have gone to the "shoot, shovel and shut up" playbook.

aluminum, be thou gold!

[SFRT]

Tweakers with Sawzalls are the new zombie plague.

[Todd Wilson]

I cashed in an old cat  2 years ago and got 20$ for it.


Another wild thing thats being done. Huffing freon out of air conditioners.   My mom had this happen to her. They were out on the side of her house pushing the shrader valve huffing freon to get high. Ran her unit out of freon and then ran off. They got caught but thats about all that happened. She got a big fat bill from the heating and air outfit to recharge.


Todd

[Todd Wilson]

These boys are damn lucky this wasn't out in the country, I would have gone to the "shoot, shovel and shut up" playbook.

aluminum, be thou gold!

More of that needs to happen!


Todd

[1969chargerrtse]

   I can't beleive what I'm reading.  This is amazing and then to hear it's not only been going on for a while, but all over even blows my mind more.  Never heard any of this from the cow town I live in.

[terrible one]

My buddy had someone crawl under his house and cut out all the copper pipe, obviously to sell for scrap. 

[Charger_Fan]

We were told that these converters are bringing $50-$100 at the junkyard.     

Porbably not the junk yard, the metal recycling yard. Around here, the boneyards absolutely will NOT sell or buy cats...big signs in the offices.
The cats have a small quantities of valuable metals required to make them & the price is going up.

I found THIS ARTICLE while refreshing my memory on which metals are contained in cats.
"Catalytic converters contain expensive precious metals like platinum - which is worth up to $1,200 an ounce; palladium, which can fetch $320 an ounce and rhodium, the biggest prize of all. It goes for up to $6,000 an ounce on the market."



I also found this CAT CLAMP while looking too.   That's pretty friggin' sad if it's getting to the point where people have to lock up their catalytic converters.

[Charger1973]

Just another reason to keep a gun

[Chargen69]

or 2

[472 R/T SE]

One of them got inside a sub station to try and steal copper.  Someone driving by seen smoke and stopped, by then he was a crispy critter. 

The cats being stolen is making the paper here as well.  Construction sites are getting hit too.

[greenpigs]

I can't stand junkies\thieves that feel they are entitled to take what they want, because life is so hard for them. This was news to me on stealing converters but a guy at work had to have his freon charged as some losers huffed it all up at his vacation house.

[A383Wing]

It's a growing concern.....and it's happening more & more......they are ripping out the phone wires from the boxes out here. Thieves are also going into unfinished houses and stripping them before the interior walls are in place.

Sounds like a good idea to either get a guard dog & chain it up to yer car, or "electrify" the vehicle when you leave it for the night.

Bryan

[Chad L. Magee]

The problem iis only going to get worse this year.  Check out www.kitco.com to see the metal prices currently.  Rhodium is almost $7,000 an oz. ( ) and platinum is above $1500 an oz (again  ).  All of the metals are going up due to outside demand from developing countries and a weak dollar......

[bull]

The problem iis only going to get worse this year.  Check out www.kitco.com to see the metal prices currently.  Rhodium is almost $7,000 an oz. ( ) and platinum is above $1500 an oz (again  ).  All of the metals are going up due to outside demand from developing countries and a weak dollar......

Hmmm. If I pay $100 for a cordless Sawzall and get 15 cats a night, that's a lot of Charger money.

Just wondering though, what companies out there actually go through the hassle to recycle precious metal from converters? Shoot, if I can get a couple thousand bucks out of one cat I should be scrapping used cars for extra money.

[squeakfinder]

I'm glad I live out in the country, where things like rifled slugs double ot and lead worms take care of these problems.....

[Chad L. Magee]

The problem iis only going to get worse this year.  Check out www.kitco.com to see the metal prices currently.  Rhodium is almost $7,000 an oz. ( ) and platinum is above $1500 an oz (again  ).  All of the metals are going up due to outside demand from developing countries and a weak dollar......

Hmmm. If I pay $100 for a cordless Sawzall and get 15 cats a night, that's a lot of Charger money.

Just wondering though, what companies out there actually go through the hassle to recycle precious metal from converters? Shoot, if I can get a couple thousand bucks out of one cat I should be scrapping used cars for extra money.

Bull- the problem is that there is only a small amount of platinum (think size of a dime) and even smaller amount of rhodium (think pin head size) in each catalytic converter.  So, some cats are worth a couple of hundred now, but not yet thousands of $s.  The metals are deposited as fine particulates in a honeycomb mesh of other materials.  Smelters usually just burn the material and the metals are collected from the leftovers in the melting pot.  The reason why rhodium is so much higher than platinum is because it has a better catalytic ability than platinum in certain industrial compounds so the demand is pushed up by that.  A decade or so ago, you could have bought all of the rhodium metal that you wanted for $200 an oz. (I wish I had bought more than I did)........

[Manfred318]

Its been amking the news paper around here as well. Cats are bringing $75 each at the recycling center a few miles away. People are also stealing junk cars left and right around here and taking them to the crusher. They are bringing $350 or so. There has also been a few junk school buses stolen too. From what Ive heard the buses are bringing upwards of $1000 each.

[moparstuart]

 converters  are good money if i can buy a wrecked old car for 100.00 here . I can generally get the money back out of the car by selling the converter or coverters on imports .   

[Brock Samson]

i remember there was a racket stealing airbags out of cars not too long ago,.. that still a concern?.. When i was looking to buy my chysler i was warned to make sure it had them intact, cause some folks bought used cars without airbags and didn't know it...

[andy74]

I received an e mail from the syracuse and rochester auto dealer association about cats being stolen off car lots,guess quiet a few dissapered in the cities,thats why its good to be in the country with a trooper barracks across the street!

[The70RT]

I have some new ones that I got at an auction a few years ago. Is it the honeycomb ones or the ones with beads bringing the most?