Things are constantly evolving in a capitalistic society.  Improvements to products, production, and manufacturing are made, more competition brings better efficiency, and competitive entrepreneurs and corporations are always looking for ways to drive more revenue and satisfy demand. 

Even thieves.

Back in the day, or at least how Hollywood has portrayed it in the movie industry, criminals who needed transportation, or were maybe stripping a car for it’s tires, or rims, or other parts would use a coat hanger to undo the car’s lock, than reach below the dash board, pull out the wiring, and connect the blue and red wire together.  This created a quick spark, but the car would immediately fire up, and the criminal would put it in gear and drive away.

Usually squealing the tires as it sped off before the cops, or car owner could stop them.

Things are different now, much different. One of the most popular items being stolen isn’t the entire cart itself, but an important device under the hood that is loaded with precious metals. It’s the catalytic converter, and they are being swiped at a fairly high rate rate according to the New York Times.

Due to much stricter rules regarding car emissions in China and globally, there is a much higher demand for the precious metals that are contained inside catalytic converters. The costs of metals like rhodium and palladium are at record levels now, and it’s created quite the black market for them.

How high has the price gone?  Palladium’s top price in 2020 was $2,875 per ounce, a massive increase from 2015 when it was $500.

Rhodium prices have launched even higher into the stratosphere, going from $640 an ounce in 2016 to an unfathomable $21,900 per ounce now.

Rhodium is now more than than 10 times the current gold price.

Because of environmental regulations changing, gas-powered cars need catalytic converters, and it’s becoming increasingly more expensive to produce the cars because of this.

It is why the demand for electric cars is rising around the world. 

The New York Times reported that catalytic converters are fairly easy for thieves to steal.  they can be sawed off from the belly of a car in just a couple minutes.  They are then taken to scrapyards, where the criminals can sell them for a few hundred dollars.  The auto part then goes to recyclers, who extract the metals from the catalytic converters.

Local police around the U.S. have the numbers and data to back this up. The New York Times reported that catalytic converter thefts have increased more than eight times in the last two years in St. Louis.  There were 50 thefts in 2019, and 420 in 2020.

In Wichita, Kansas, the reported cases went from 191 to 547 in the past two years.

The catalytic converters in the Toyota Prius are especially desired. Because the gasoline engines on a Prius are not used as much it takes longer for the car to burn out the precious metals, so they have even more value on the market.

Older foreign modeled cars are often targeted too, because they generally will contain more of the precious metals than newer cars.

The auto industry is being forced to deal with this issue. Many car owners are calling for company’s like Toyota to add anti-theft protections to cars, like metal shields to make stealing them more difficult.

What’s especially sad for people who have had catalytic converters stolen from their vehicles is the cost of replacing them. They are looking at roughly a $2 – $3 thousand dollar bill, which without full insurance coverage is a cost that would have to be footed by the car owner.

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