Going for platinum, thieves cut out cars' catalytic converters
Rising price of metal makes devices target
Thanks to rising prices of precious metals, catalytic converters have suddenly become a hot commodity for auto thieves.
The converters, which help reduce exhaust emissions, contain platinum and other metals that make them valuable to companies that recondition the parts. This makes them perfect targets for thieves looking for quick cash. Illegally sold converters can bring about $100 each, local mechanics say, and the repairs are even more expensive for the victims of such thefts.
According to mechanics, the theft can take as little as five minutes: jack the car up, cut the converter off, let the jack down and go. Auto repair shops that The Tennessean contacted reported at least 35 incidents of missing catalytic converters in the past four weeks.
Catalytic converters on most automobiles are underneath the car body, attached to the exhaust system on a long, metal pipe. They're fairly inconspicuous — until they're missing. Then, victims say, there's no doubt that something is wrong with their vehicles.
Gail Cellamare of Old Hickory immediately noticed something was wrong when her 1999 Oldsmobile Cutlass made a terrible noise as she began to drive home from work one evening.
"After a very loud noise, I looked under the car and I could tell there appeared to be a pipe missing, and I thought I had lost it on the side of the road," she said, adding that she drove home slowly in fear of further damaging the car.
"When I checked the next morning, I thought, 'Boy, that looks like it was cut.' "
A trip to a local repair shop revealed that her catalytic converter had been sawed off. The theft resulted in a $434 bill for Cellamare and an expensive lesson in world economics.
Thefts rise with prices
Catalytic converters contain a combination of platinum, palladium and rhodium, all three of which have seen significant price jumps in futures markets. Earlier this week, the New York Mercantile Exchange listed January prices of platinum at $1,118.50 an ounce.
In comparison, gold prices were expected to reach about $625 per ounce by March.
The converters are the latest target in metal thefts that have occurred throughout the country in recent years. Reports of brazen thefts like copper wiring stolen from heating and air conditioning units and aluminum gutters and siding taken from houses have become commonplace.
The metals in the converters are in a honeycomb-shaped substrate, a porous bed that harmful emissions of hydrocarbons and nitrous oxides pass through to be converted into safer gases. Without the converter, those emissions can reach illegal levels, and create a pretty awful sound in the process.
Shirley Waller of Antioch said her 1994 Nissan pickup truck made a noise she had never heard before after she came out of Kroger one day.
"When I started, I hadn't even let the brake off and there was this huge noise, and I knew there was something wrong with the muffler system," said Waller, 70. "I cut it off, got out and looked to see if my muffler had come off … and realized the catalytic converter was off."
Unlike many victims of the crime, Waller said she reported her theft to police. Officials in the auto theft division of the Metro police department said they received "two or three" reports of stolen converters in the past week.
"We're having more home burglaries and armed robberies than we are having catalytic converters stolen," Lt. Duane Williamson of the Hermitage precinct said. "If you caught somebody under the car sawing one off, then we could do something about it."
Replacement costs hurt
Auto repair shops across the Nashville area have reported a recent rise in converter thefts. The cost of replacing a stolen catalytic converter can range from a couple of hundred dollars to substantially more, depending on the automobile.
"There are cars like the Honda Civic where the exhaust manifold and the catalytic converter are all one thing," said Ted Swanson, manager of Meineke Car Care Center at 3604 Nolensville Road. "Then you could see estimates in excess of $2,000 — although that's not what we would charge them. That's probably a worst-case scenario."
The financial effects are also being felt by mechanics themselves. In neighboring Williamson County, owner Donnie Bryan of Nolensville Auto Care, 7302 Nolensville Road, said he had seven converters stolen off cars sitting on his
lot.
"There ain't no way to prevent it. They've hit us twice," Bryan said, adding that the shop replaced the converters at no cost to the car owners. "We filed police reports, insurance reports, and they won't take care of it."
[End article]
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