Tri-Cities Thieves Are Still After Your Catalytic Converters

With all the catalytic converter thefts happening in the Mid-Columbia (and the nation), you may have heard that the reason thieves want them so bad is because of the precious metals they contain. And there's one less thief loose on the streets as you'll see in the post below from the Franklin County Sheriff's Office.

But what do the thieves do with those precious metals? I found a video on Youtube (below) that explained it well for my non-mechanical brain. The catalytic converters use a catalyst (precious metals) to take your nasty exhaust and make it not so nasty before it's released into the air out your tailpipe. It uses a catalyst to convert...I think I'm getting this now.

But the thieves probably don't have the equipment or even know the process of extracting those precious metals, so they're being sold to other unscrupulous dealers. One of those precious metals is Rodium and it goes for about $28,000 per ounce! I'm sure it takes a ton of converters to get a whole ounce of the stuff, but thieves are willing to steal a ton of them, apparently. The video below also has some good ideas on how to protect your vehicle from getting hit by converter thieves.