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Thick_Piece t1_ivl27qx wrote

Reply to comment by yoeddyVT in Vermont State Police: Arrests made in 200 catalytic converter thefts by dropkickninja

These things are worth so much that they could have changed hands multiple times…

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Salty_Charlemagne t1_ivlliqc wrote

Why are they so valuable? Do they have some other use besides for cars? Or is it just an expensive easily stealable car part that can be grafted onto other stolen (?) cars?

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Ok-Dirt7287 t1_ivlodqa wrote

They have rare earth metals and platinum. Here in Colorado we are #1 or 2 for stolen cats. So much so they say just let them take it because people are getting killed. We just passed a law that any scrapper who receives a cat has to report the id number within 24 hours or they are breaking the law. It's a shame it's happening in VT . I'm relocating from Colorado

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YPG-Got-Raqqa t1_ivopoxi wrote

I run one of the largest salvage yard in the state and process cats. They contain platinum, palladium and rhodium. When the fuel in your engine burns it has to combine with oxygen. Oxygen naturally comes as O2 with two of them bonded together. Inside the cat there are tiny spikes of these metals that cause the O2 to break in two.

When the oxygen is floating around as single atoms it causes the combustion temperature to drop substantially causing more complete burning of the exhaust products and a cleaner exhaust.

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