Catalytic converter thefts frustrating, costly to victims

“It’s pretty sad when you can’t enjoy a day of fishing and return to your vehicle and find out someone has stolen your catalytic converter,” Sequoyah County Commissioner Ray Watts said Monday.

Watts said during Thanksgiving weekend, he was fishing at Wilson Rock and after returning to his diesel truck, he noticed something was not right after driving away. Watts said he took his truck to a mechanic which is when he learned his catalytic converter was gone.

“It cost me $1,600 to get that thing replaced because my warranty wouldn’t cover that. It’s frustrating,” Watts said.

Watts is not the only person to be victimized of catalytic converter theft.

A huge increase in thefts of catalytic converters is an ongoing problem just about everywhere, according to Sequoyah County Sheriff Larry Lane.

Thieves are sliding under cars and trucks and brazenly sawing off converters by the thousands, even in broad daylight while people are parked at busy shopping malls or even in their front yards, according to news reports. The attraction is the valuable metals inside the converter, an anti-pollution device.

“We’ve had some reports. They sell them as scrap metal in Muskogee, mainly Arkan- sas,” Lane said. “If anyone is caught stealing them, they will be facing malicious injury to private property and maybe some other charges depending on the value of the device.”

Lane also said with recent changes applied to the law regarding theft, thieves caught stealing a catalytic converter can either be charged with a misdemeanor or grand theft, depending on the value of the device stolen.

A catalytic converter, which resembles a small muffler, is a portion of the exhaust system which is designed to reduce emissions. The honeycomb mesh coated in precious metal is designed to maximize the surface area so that gas will interact with the catalyst, according to automobile manufacturers.

As exhaust passes through, harmful gasses are filtered into less harmful ones which is where the word “converter” applies.

Thieves have been stealing catalytic converters because there is a limited supply of the precious metals contained inside the devices. The average scrap value of a catalytic converter is between $300 and $1,500 and is considered one of the most expensive parts of a vehicle because of the metal used to manufacture the device, reports indicate.

The catalytic converter can be found underneath the car in the exhaust system and varies from vehicle to vehicle. It can also be found somewhere between the exhaust manifold and the muffler.

Catalytic converters are expensive because it is an expensive part to repair. Although it is just a small portion of the exhaust system, the device uses a chemical catalyst to clean up the exhaust. With this catalyst’s aid, nitrogen oxide becomes nitrogen and oxygen, carbon monoxide becomes carbon dioxide, and remaining unburnt hydrocarbons are converted to water and carbon dioxide.

Unfortunately, the only suitable catalysts are rare metals, such as platinum, palladium and rhodium. All of these metals are very expensive. Platinum’s current spot price is $1,135 per ounce, and palladium costs more than gold, at $2,332 per ounce. While very useful, rhodium is highly unstable and ranges from $10,000 to over $21,000 per ounce,” according to automobile manufacturers. “I think both the buyer and the seller should face criminal charges,” Watts said.

“It’s frustrating when people who don’t want to work just want to steal and it affects our livelihood. I think most thefts are drug-related and a lot of hunters and fishermen are saying they don’t want to risk leaving their vehicle unattended if there’s a chance someone is going to steal from their vehicle. But then, these thieves need to consider they can also get hurt that way especially when they’re dealing with hunters who happen to return to their vehicle and the thief is still there,” Watts said.

Watts said he may approach local state representatives and look into some type of legislation or harsher punishment for those involved in catalytic converter theft.