On a car, it means cleaner air. For a thief, it means $150
Catalytic converter thefts rise with demand for their metals
BY NICK FERRARO
Pioneer Press
Eileen Vossen got a rude response when she started her 1996 Hyundai Elantra on a snowy December morning.
"Oh, my gosh … it was the loudest noise I have ever heard," said Vossen, who thought her ler had fallen off.
She had it towed to a North St. Paul repair shop, where a mechanic broke the news: Someone swiped the car's catalytic converter while it was parked outside her Oakdale apartment, apparently after shimmying underneath with a saw.
"I said, 'They did what?' I had never heard of anyone doing that," said Vossen, 55.
Police say catalytic converters are becoming hot targets for thieves because they contain platinum, palladium and rhodium — precious metals recyclers want after a recent upswing in prices.
"I think there always has been high demand for whatever metal is increasing in value," Blaine Police Chief Dave Johnson said. "I remember years ago we had the rush of silver and gold, and it was common to see gold and even silverware and flatware taken."
Police say thieves typically slide under cars and use a battery-powered reciprocating saw to slice off the catalytic converter, which is part of the exhaust system and designed to reduce emissions.
Bob Henderson, a senior special agent with the National Insurance Crime Bureau, said thieves usually seek out catalytic converters on cars that are less than five years old because those are cleaner and look better when brought in for sale.
A converter can fetch from $10 to $150, depending on its size and type and where it is recycled.
"These things seem to go missing pretty much wherever there are a large number of parked cars," Johnson said.
But the thieves are not limiting themselves to parking lots. Just ask Brian Najdek, owner of Adolph's Catalytic Converters & Cores, a Blaine business that buys catalytic converters and then extracts the metals.
One night last summer, he said, burglars smashed a 2-foot-by-2-foot hole through a concrete wall, crawled inside the business and stole about 800 catalytic converters worth an estimated $70,000.
"We think one guy was inside passing them to another guy who was outside," Najdek said. "That's a lot of work and effort. From what police could tell, they made two trips."
No one has been arrested in the burglary, Johnson said. More recently, thieves made off with about 150 catalytic converters after raiding an outside storage area Jan. 12 or Jan. 13 at Somerset Auto Salvage in Somerset, Wis., parts manager Bryan Henningsen said.
Brooklyn Center police received seven reports of catalytic converter thefts from the same park-and-ride lot in one two-week stretch in November, said auto-theft officer John Ratajczyk, who tracks such crime trends.
Officers set up surveillance at the lot and on Nov. 20 arrested 25-year-old Nicholas Edmund Julkowski, of East Bethel, who was snooping around a Jeep Cherokee, according to a Hennepin County criminal complaint filed against him and an alleged accomplice.
Officers found five catalytic converters, a section of an exhaust pipe, a reciprocating saw and a car jack in Julkowski's car, according to the complaint.
Investigators matched the catalytic converters to vehicles that had been in park-and-ride lots in Mounds View, Wyoming and Columbus Township, Ratajczyk said.
"These things have no serial numbers," he said, "so the only way to match them is to compare things like the angle of the cut or skip of the blade."
Julkowski was released from the Hennepin County jail Nov. 22 pending formal charges. Less than two weeks later, he was arrested again after a Cambridge, Minn., man caught him allegedly trying to steal a catalytic converter off his truck, according to an Isanti County criminal complaint.
Julkowski's Hennepin County lawyer did not return messages left for comment.
Najdek said his business buys about 20,000 catalytic converters a month, mostly from ler repair shops and auto salvage yards they have done business with for many years.
When someone comes in off the street, employees ask for identification, record the information and then pay by check — methods reputable s yards often use to help catch criminals, he said.
Henderson, the insurance investigator, said it is hard to say how often these thefts are taking place because law enforcement agencies categorize the crimes as thefts from vehicles. Comprehensive insurance usually covers the replacement cost, he said.
That was good news to Vossen, whose insurance covered the nearly $1,000 bill for her repair, after her $100 deductible.
Vossen said that in recent years thieves have damaged her car's door locks and vandals have slashed the tires and scratched the paint.
"I didn't think there was much more they could do to it," she said, "but they did it."
Nick Ferraro can be reached at nferraro@pioneerpress.com ("nferraro@pioneerpress.com") or 651-228-5473.
AT A GLANCE
Police in the Twin Cities and nationwide are reporting a growing number of catalytic converters stolen from parked vehicles as thieves seek the precious metals in them. The converters are part of a vehicle's exhaust system, located between the engine and ler and help reduce harmful emissions. They contain platinum, palladium and rhodium. Insurance investigators say it is difficult to track the number of thefts. A catalytic convert can get a thief up to $150.
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/16623725.htm
I guess it's a good thing I no longer have cats :)
Yep, made a lot of money off of them this summer. And no I didn't steal them, just removed them before I crushed the car.
1000 dollars to replace a cat? that sounds like bull shiznit to me. Glad my car is too old for that stuff, i just have to worry about people targeting my car to steal, hence why im buying a kill swtich. NO ONES TAKING M CAR! lol
wow! i was just thinking about this like 2 days ago. the thought just kinda popped into my head "i wonder if anyone's ever thought of stealing converters"
im in the same boat SSX, theyll be mad when they find my summit off road pipe. :shakeass:
then they slash your tires, scratch your paint, and break your locks lol
And to think I just threw mine away when I removed 'em. D'oh!
i guess they are worth nothing gutted, i need to gut the one on my moms 318 jeep, its broken and clanking around, and then its getting a flowmaster, she just doesn't know yet:evilgrin:
Yeah there are recycling places here that buy cats and apparently you can get decent money even for old junky ones. I oughta run my old ones out to one of these places.
Fortunately I don't have to worry about someone stealing the nonexistent cat on my bird. haha.
when i worked at an exhaust shop the s guy gave me 45 bucks for a mustang h-pipe a guy gave after i put on a off road x-pipe, the one cat was even smashed up a bit and it was still worth 45 bucks, sweet deal for me,
my boss would make a decent amount of the cats when s guys came in, usually around 9 cats would bring 150-200bucks around back in 2005.
i wonder how much cat on a 00 econoline with a 5.4l would be that thing is about 2 feet long and about 8in diameter!
Being In The Towing Industry I Buy And S Junk Cars All Day Long And That Is How I Make My Mony Is Oof Of Cats And Aluminum Rims Shot Last Time I Had 7 Converter And 12 Rims Brought $800.00 Cash Now Im Saving Up Got Like 25 Cats And Prob 40 Rims
Dang, I got three on my cat. But don't think there are any recycle plants in ND
We had a truck come into the shop a few weeks ago with the cats cut off of it.
Btw, it's the large foreign units that bring the most. Pretty much any size domestic one isn't worth much compared to a foreign one. They have more platinum in them.
Last summer I with My truck I started a "s run" in the trash, this give Me around 2000$/month...
So the Canadian Pacific was restored his track pass in My village last summer, and a spers stoled a lot oif entire boxes (4x4x3 approx) of big nails, plates, and bars of unions, the Police was found where this metal (grade #1) where dumped,but who's stolen this???, never found...
And a little dealer of used cars near Me see his entire lot of cars with the catalyser removed by the night...
A cat at the syard will be around 20-80$ depending of the weight, ect...
A Day last summer the Police checked all spers in My area to check the truck load, Me too, no prob's with Me, I never have any stoled stuff in My van, and when I found a curious thing in the trash, I write the city, street, and adress where I found...
Regards,
Dom.
I have 2 extra Y pipes on my garrage with cats still? Hey, free money and more space sounds good to me.
some bring more then a buck fidy...
About a year ago, a fleet of trucks in Grand rapids mich. lost their cats over the weekend. What a monday morning Eh?
This past weekend a local s yard got broken into, cats and aluminum wheels stolen.
I work at a GM dealer and when we take ones off for replacement, regardless if they are gutted or not, they bring really good prices from the local JY or people who buy them and resell them to metal companies.
One of the guys over at the help desk where I work had his stolen off his Ram last summer.
I remember hearing on the news how a group was going around stealing them in the Baltimore area at that time. This is the first I've heard it since.
Wow, I never knew that! I wish I would have known that about 2 weeks ago. I sped an 86 T-bird becasue of the rust. Still had all the cats!
Some scumbag stole 4 centerline Billet wheels, 2 TC space saver aluminum wheels and my NOS bottle (with line and gauge) out of my storage unit last Sept. Wish the A. Hole would have took all my Cat. Convertors instead!!
Yeah, a lot of JYs won't tell you about things like that.
tip- Always get the name of the JY employee that gives you an accessment of what the JY will sell something for. You might get to the cashier and find they want more, especially close to closing time! :evilgrin: