The scourge of converter theft: has the solution been found?

Simple legislation and strict enforcement - is the solution found in the war against converter thieves?

The component that is supposed to reduce pollutant emissions and contains rare metals has become a hit with thieves and dealers

Kenan Cohen

12/10/2022

Wednesday, October 12, 2022, 09:55 Updated: 10:09

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A car caught with what are suspected to be stolen catalytic converters (Photo: Israel Police)

A portable disc saw and a few minutes of inattention, that's all a skilled thief needs to remove the catalytic converter from your vehicle.

When the cars that suffer mostly from the hands of the thieves are mainly made by Subaru or Toyota hybrid, but other products also do not escape their long and damned hand.

The reason for the huge demand?

The rare and very expensive materials inside the catalytic converter.

and that when heated to high temperatures some of the polluting substances are neutralized as a result of the burning of the engine's gasoline.

Among other things rhodium, platinum and palladium - the price of which can range from a few tens of shekels to thousands of shekels for each converter depending on the quality and quantity of the material in it.

A quick sawing of the converter from the manifold and you have thousands of shekels in damage (Photo: Keinan Cohen)

A new initiative by the governor of California seeks to combat this scourge of theft by cutting off the chain of commerce in converters and these materials.

According to the new legislation in the country, buying or trading a catalytic converter other than its legal owner or an authorized dealer will be an offense against the law.

The goal is to make it difficult for the thieves to find a "market" for those stolen converters.

According to the legislation, the businesses that recycle metals and deal with the dismantling of converters must document how and from whom the converter was bought or where the materials were taken from.

In the absence of such a registration, the source of the material or part will be considered stolen, which has very heavy consequences for the business owner.

"We're going to get down to the root of the problem, or at least one of the roots of this crime, and it's the dealers and middlemen who pay a lot of money for these parts," says Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, "It will now be illegal to buy a catalytic converter from anyone who is not a licensed vehicle wrecker or dealer . As soon as the market for stolen goods is suppressed, it reduces the thefts themselves."

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This confrontation that California is choosing is one way to combat what has become a scourge of theft not only there, not only in the United States, but throughout the world.

The increase in the price of the rare metal markets that are also used in the electronics and chips industry has led to huge jumps in the prices of the materials that the thieves produce from the catalytic converters.

And together with the increase in prices, there is also an increased activity of the thieves.

According to the data of the American insurance companies, in 2018, 1,298 claims were filed due to the theft of catalytic converters, in 2019, the number rose to 3,389 complaints, but the year 2020 brought the most significant jump - 14,433 claims.

The reasons, they explain, stem from the continued demand for materials on the one hand and the opportunity for "easy money" on the other that the thieves identified.

Installing a shield sometimes makes it difficult to access the converter (Photo: Keinan Cohen)

In Israel, despite the increased activity of the police in the area of ​​the theft of converters, the achievements are null in sixty compared to the actual number of thefts.

Both those who report and the owners of the affected cars do not bother to file a complaint due to the low chance of locating the thieves.

However, there is an additional price that we all pay when the high prices lead those who are affected by the scourge of theft to install less efficient converters or sometimes to settle for a solution of simply welding a pipe instead of the converter - which results in high pollutant emissions from the car.

In the absence of a focused response from enforcement, and even if this is done by serious treatment of thieves by the judicial system, the responsibility for reducing the chance of the converters being stolen unfortunately "falls" once again on the citizens.

And the tips we repeat again and again are also relevant here - if you are the owner of one of the cars prone to disasters, make sure to park in a crowded place as much as possible, in a closed parking lot and if these are not possible and in general it is definitely recommended to invest the few hundred shekels in protecting the expensive component.

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• Car thefts

• thefts

• California