On Friday, Jan. 7, campus safety notified the DU community that armed suspects were caught breaking into a vehicle west of Seeley Mudd and threatening a victim. An “ALL CLEAR” message was sent out later that day.
On Jan. 10, DU provided a synopsis of the incidents the alerts had broadcast. Assuring students these threats were random, the message describes the suspects as typically wearing work clothes including traffic vests, and are in possession of battery-operated cutting tools.
The nature of these crimes, theft of motor vehicles and vehicle parts, are centered around a valuable part in particular: catalytic converters. Thus, DU and the Denver community found themselves thrust into a peculiar crime wave currently ravaging the wallets of many.
What is seen as a lucrative opportunity for thieves, a catalytic converter is an exhaust emission control device that converts toxic gasses and pollutants in exhaust gas from an internal combustion engine into less-toxic pollutants by catalyzing a redox reaction. Essentially, the device is what converts harmful gasses such as carbon monoxide and uncombusted hydrocarbons into harmless products such as water and carbon dioxide.
Why is the theft of these devices becoming increasingly frequent, and why are they popular within the black market? There is one simple answer to both questions: A catalytic converter is composed of one of the world’s most valuable metals.
According to Andrew Robinson, author and contributor to Scientific American, catalytic converters are more valuable than silver, gold, platinum and even jewelry. These devices are made of rhodium, a rare precious metal that is extracted from platinum, which is itself a rare metal.
“Rhodium has been a key ingredient in every car sold in the United States since around 1975,” Robinson said.
Varying based on the type of vehicle, the catalytic converter is usually found beneath the car, located between the engine and the exhaust system. Robinson also outlines the devices’ origin story, pointing to the mass air pollution in the U.S. of the 1970s, which resulted in the “Clean Air Act” and a commitment to reduce automobile emissions by 90% from 1968 to 1975 as the model year.
To help achieve this, “Engineers and researchers at Engelhard Industries and Corning Glassworks ultimately developed what is the modern three-way catalytic converter… It’s part of a system that cleans out pollutants and prevents them from entering the atmosphere. And it’s also the reason why thieves across the U.S. are sawing off catalytic converters in order to get their hands on a few precious grams of the world’s most valuable metal,” Robinson said.
According to The Pew Charitable Trusts, a global non-profit organization with a focus in public policy, criminals typically sell stolen catalytic converters for $50-$500 to internet buyers or scrapyards. It is the victims, however, who end up suffering the most financially. For a new converter, victims would have to fork over $1,000-$4,000.
According to the Washington Post in March of 2021, the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) said a study showed that 108 catalytic converter thefts occurred each month on average nationwide in 2018, jumping to an average of more than 1,200 per month in 2020.
According to the American Automobile Association (AAA), in the state of Colorado, 2,485 cases of catalytic converter theft were reported in 2021, a 1,555 case increase from 2020. Skyler McKinley, head and spokesperson of the public relations and government affairs division at AAA Colorado, announced a first-in-the-country partnership to halt the surge in catalytic converter theft; a free program designed to “etch serial numbers (both through sticker and chemically) onto every catalytic converter that gets in front of our shops… Those serial numbers are entered into a trackable, searchable database by law enforcement.”
In light of this nationwide spree, non-profits have been developed with the aim to cover catalytic converter replacement costs, and homeowners and businesses alike are looking for ways to reduce the spread of these incidents.
With what is considered a relatively quick and profitable process, the city of Denver and the nation must expect and prepare for the brazen and emboldened thieves who surely will continue to try and capitalize on these valuable devices and corner this illicit market.
