Catalytic converter thefts on the rise in Australia as rare metal values climb
abc.net.au
abc.net.au
There's other things that cost alot on a vehicle, wheels and tires on an SUV cost more or about equal to the catalytic converter, so by design wheels and tires are from a supply and demand perspective more precious and rare than catalytic converters.
What thieves choose to steal has nothing to do with scarcity and everything to do with convenience. While these small amounts of precious metals may sound important rare earth metals are literally everywhere.
Were just too rich to care about mining them in the first world.
The catalytic converter is very quick to steal as long as the thieves have a brain and know what one looks like but most importantly if the car is just sitting in a driveway you can't tell anything has been done to it. Also metal recyclers traditionally haven't been looped in with law enforcement for this kind of thing and recyclers tend to be a lot more shady because there's less oversight. Once something's been recycled you can't really tell what it was before.
Most other parts on a car the melt value is almost nothing in relation to the effort it takes to get it. Catalytic converter the melt value is very very high in proportion.
I'm not currently in a region that's experiencing that problem as far as I know. It probably comes down to the recyclers trying harder to be honest in my region.
Yup the metal recyclers up my way are .. or were pretty shady, big companies even. Almost 2 decades ago I had One Steel nick an old tractor that was at a property they were cleaning up ... it's theft and I let them know it but of course they didn't offer anything but shrugs, unfortunately I've got a big mouth, no police or nothing, and other people would have been keeping a keen eye the same sort of BS didn't repeat -- it's been a while and I don't see them cleaning up much in the last few years :) The same area in the last few years also gained an independent metal merchant paying the best money for copper and whatnot - I can bet he is a lot more careful when his own lavish property was hit a couple of years ago, from what the big story in the local news reported, had to be a very organised gang of people that went for a lot what seemed to me, of not very traditional things to nick ... I could easily assume he'd PO someone how knew how to make their point - don't be part of any fucking thieving.