Number One Crime in my Neighborhood: Theft of Catalytic Converters

Numerous catalytic converters are being stolen in my neighborhood in the City of St. Louis. This note is from a recent meeting of my neighborhood association: “The number one crime continues to be the stealing of catalytic converters from people’s cars. These types of crimes are hard to investigate since they happen very quickly.” The attached surveillance video below that it only takes 1 minute to steal a catalytic converter.

One of my neighbors was very upset to find hers stolen a couple weeks ago. To replace the converter on her Honda Element would have been in excess of $3,000, and this was more than the value of her car. How much do the thieves get for damaging or destroying your car? “Although the amount of metal in a single catcon is relatively small, a thief could expect to get from $50 to $100 out of a single poaching.”  This can ruin a car for many people and this is happening during the pandemic, when many people are already severely stressed.

There are various devices you can buy or create to make it a lot harder to steal your catalytic converter. I’m looking into buying and installing one of these devices now.

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Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth is an attorney focusing on civil rights (including First Amendment), consumer law litigation and appellate practice. At this website often writes about censorship, corporate news media corruption and cognitive science. He is also a working musician, artist and a writer, having founded Dangerous Intersection in 2006. Erich lives in St. Louis, Missouri with his two daughters.

This Post Has 2 Comments

  1. Avatar of Ruth Henriquez
    Ruth Henriquez

    That is so sad that thieves are targeting already stressed-out people in this way. And thanks for the warning — I had no idea this was a “thing.”

  2. Avatar of Bill Heath
    Bill Heath

    Taking out the catalytic converter creates a gap in the exhaust pipe. If the gap is repaired (a simple undertaking) then you don’t hear the Harley Davidson fleet. What is extracted is platinum group metals, difficult to mine, relatively expensive because they’re relatively rare.

    What will be stolen from electric cars? Silver.

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