JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — Thieves in Wyoming are targeting your vehicle in a way you probably never expected. They are not interested in your valuables locked inside or your stereo system. Instead, desperate criminals are crawling underneath your car to steal your catalytic converter.
Why? It’s worth more than gold.
It’s a crime wave experienced across the nation as a sharp rise in catalytic converter thefts is being attributed to valuable metals like rhodium, for instance, which is worth 17 times the price of gold.
In Wyoming, the Uinta County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the theft of over two dozen catalytic converters. The converters have been cut off vehicles using a Sawzall or grinder. Precious metals inside the converters have made them a target for thieves looking to make quick money.
Catalytic converters are on all gas and diesel engine vehicles but national data shows thieves are especially interested in full-sized pickup trucks, Priuses, and Econoline work vans. Rhodium, the element used in convertors, is in short supply as global demand is rising for emission control in cars.
