Stealing cats

Catalytic converters, that is. According to this report, thefts of catalytic converters for their precious metals content are on the rise:

As prices of precious metals skyrocket, thieves are targeting an obscure component of automotive exhaust systems in lightning thefts that can be accomplished in less than a minute, police and automotive experts say.

(Catalytic converter. Photo: MSNBC)

The component is the catalytic converter, which has been a mandatory part of exhaust systems since 1975. Police across the country say they have seen a dramatic rise in thefts of the components in recent months.
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Catalytic converters have only small traces of the metals — platinum, palladium and rhodium — but there’s enough in them for a thief to resell stolen units for up to $200 apiece. Rhodium is among the most expensive metals on Earth, commanding as much as $6,000 an ounce on the open market.

Scrap dealers “are paying top dollar — platinum, palladium, rhodium inside of them — and they’re getting top dollar” on resale, said Jack Bell of North Shore Towing, which tows vehicles for the Evanston, Ill., police.
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The converters are inviting targets because they’re easy to grab. Mounted on the exterior undercarriage of vehicles, they can be removed in about a minute with any standard metal cutting tool. An enterprising thief in a crowded parking lot or garage can make off with enough converters to clear $2,000 or $3,000 in half an hour.

“These thieves are targeting shopping malls, school parking lots, busy business districts, and they are hitting these places in the daylight,” said Jennifer Krings, a spokeswoman for AAA. “A lot of the large passenger cars — SUVs, trucks and vans — have two, so those are a target.”

To keep your car's kitties safe, this enterprising Ohio business is selling the "CatClamp":

In less than half a minute, a thief can crawl under a car or truck, switch on a cordless saw and make off with a catalytic converter and the valuable platinum inside.
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That scene is occurring with a frightening rapidity across the country, but an Ohio firm says it has the solution — the CatClamp, a cage-like device dreamed up by veteran welder Jim Dusa II.

(The CatClamp device. Photo: CatClamp.com)

Dusa is president of American Welding Inc. in Toledo, and has been selling his invention for about a year now.

So far, no customers have complained.

Dusa was led to invent the device when a national truck-rental agency approached him about producing something that would protect the converters, ordered by Congress nearly three decades ago as a means of enabling automobiles to meet emission standards of the Clean Air Act.

In recent months, thieves have been ripping off the devices by simply sliding underneath cars and trucks and applying a cordless apparatus to pry them loose. A typical theft takes about 30 seconds.

For about a year, Dusa’s company installed his CatClamp on rental trucks in the Toledo and Detroit areas to see if they could deter bandits.

“We had 100 percent success,” he says. “We haven’t even had a report of an attempt.

“It just makes more work than it’s worth to the thief. There’s too much low-hanging fruit out there for them to take something with this on. They go under there and may try to cut it, but it’s going to be a heckuva job with a saw.” [emphasis added]

Makes sense. If you're a thief, why waste time trying to overcome a protected vehicle, when the vehicle next to it is unprotected. If catalytic converter theft becomes widespread, I would expect insurance companies to start offering discounts for devices such as the CatClamp that make it harder for thieves to steal the converter. Automakers might also begin stamping the VIN numbers on the catalytic converters to facilitate traceability of stolen units.