Stealing Copper is the Old Hotness: All The Cool Crackheads Are Swiping Catalytic Converters

There lies a secret more precious than gold deep, deep in the belly of your Honda Civic, and dark forces wish to take it from you. Apparently, the catalytic converter in your car contains precious metals and crackheads have been working their twitchy asses off stealing them. The tiny honeycomb like structure that is used to clean exhaust fumes using high heat and chemical reactions contains traces of platinum and other blingy substances that can be given to a scrap yard for a decent buck. With our craptastic economy and the booming commodities market, more and more thefts of these little doodads are being reported everyday. Replacement converters go for around $450 all the way up to $1,500 for an S.U.V. (haha!). This is bad news for car-owners who can’t protect a very vital and expensive part of their car as it can easily be sliced off by crawling underneath the vehicle with a battery operated saw.

The preciousss….the preciousss. We wants it. We needs it. Must have the precioussss. They stole it from us. Wicked, trickssssy, sneaky little hobbitsesss.

In related news, if you want to cheer yourself up (or maybe just make your neighbors crazy) by adding a little sumpin’ sumpin’ to your fly ride, check out the latest car mod hitting the west coast- the muffler whistle.

Link [New York Times]