My wife just looked in our local newspaper's police log (in Arkansas) and saw two victims of theft, for catalytic converters.

submitted by In-the-clouds from (self.AskSaidIt)

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[–][deleted] 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Yes, this is a very common crime, catalytic converters use platinum and other precious metals, are worth a few hundred bucks on the black market, and can be removed from a car very quickly with the right tools. As far as thefts go, this has a decent monetary return for relatively little risk (compared to other means of robbery, obviously crime is inherently risky), its not hard to see why this type of crime has become increasingly common, especially with the economy and inflation making it harder for people to make ends meet for people working low-income jobs

[–]Zapped 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

It's usually factory installed cats, since they have to be super efficient to meet the EPA standards. An aftermarket cat has much less of the platinum inside, and therefore not nearly as valuable. Toyota Prius' are one of the priciest to replace.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yep, you are absolutely right.