Precious Metals Under Your Car | Local Thieves Caught

Here's an interesting one I'm sure some #steemsilvergold members will appreciate. I read an article in the paper yesterday about an increase in the theft of catalytic converters in our county over the last 6 months. Some thieves had been jacking them off of cars and the cops caught a suspect after video surveillance helped ID the guy. They estimated that over the last 6 months just over 100 stolen catalytic converters had been reported.

Anyway, the police were able to convince this guy that they caught to cooperate and help with the investigation. Clearly 100s of stolen catalytic converters weren't just down to this one guy. No, as it turned out he was just one of many thieves involved in a large crew that were stealing them and then selling them to the owner of a recycling center.

This recycling owner was basically the ring leader. He was telling the crew when to steal, when to lay low, and which vehicles to hit or which converters were 'more' valuable.

As soon as I read that, I knew that this had to do with the precious metals found inside catalytic converters. If you didn't know this, catalytic converters typically have a few different precious metals inside. Platinum, Palladium, and Rhodium. It's pretty obvious that these metals were the reason behind the thefts.

The best part is, they caught the guy. He confessed to buying the parts in cash and not keeping record of the purchases which is required by law. He was booked into the county jail and is looking at four counts of first-degree trafficking in stolen property and five counts of first-degree attempted trafficking in stolen property.