Catalytic Converter Theft: The Latest Hillbilly Crime Racket

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

It hasn't been too long ago that the biggest crime rackets down here in the Ozarks were the manufacture of meth by people who never made it as far as high school, and breaking into homes to steal guns.  But over the past couple of years some of our more enterprising criminals have moved on to a more lucrative criminal activity.  They are stealing catalytic converters both from cars as well as from businesses that sell the converters.  

Catalytic converters are valuable because they contain three precious metals:  rhodium, palladium, and platinum, and they are readily available because all vehicles manufactured after 1981 are required to have one.   Accomplished thieves can remove catalytic converters quickly and then sell them on to criminal networks at a decent price, depending on the size of the device and how much of the precious metals it contains.    Larger vehicles have bigger catalytic converters, and the thief's payment per converter can range from a hundred to several hundred dollars.  It's a quick-profit enterprise, especially in a tight economy, and takes far less energy than running a puppy mill.

Stealing catalytic converters is such easy money that it is quickly spreading into communities where people who are not fond of work tend to congregate.  Yesterday there was a story on the front page of our local newspaper regarding a pair of individuals who had been arrested after fourteen catalytic converters were found in their vehicle during a routine traffic stop.

Another fellow who lives about a hundred miles from here near Springfield has been in the news regularly since his arrest last year as one of the ringleaders of a major catalytic converter theft operation.  The twenty-four-year-old had reportedly been involved in transporting more than a million dollars worth of the devices across The Missouri-Arkansas state line to a business in Mountain Home, Arkansas.

Insurance companies are reporting dramatic increases in payouts for stolen catalytic converters over the past few years, and when crime begins to reach into the pockets of corporate America, things start to change.  A bill has been recently filed in the Missouri legislature that will require transactions of catalytic converters to contain the vehicle identification numbers (VINs) for the vehicles that the converters came from.

Yep, government paperwork.  That will probably take a bite out of these crimes!  But people who don't want to work or who want to get rich quick will always be on the lookout for the next big thing.   

Lock your house, guard your car, and keep your money in the bank - where it is insured!