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comment by steve
steve  ·  1383 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Thieves Nationwide are Slipping under Cars, Stealing Catalytic Converters

I don't have a NYT subscription... please tell me this article is from like... 2002 when this was actually a headline.





psychoticmilkman  ·  1383 days ago  ·  link  ·  
user-inactivated  ·  1382 days ago  ·  link  ·  

There were 3197 thefts of catalytic converters in Sweden last year, compared to 74 in 2019. So maybe not a new phenomenon, but a drastic increase.

steve  ·  1382 days ago  ·  link  ·  

dang....

I bet there is some kind of proportional relationship between economic hardship and this. A cordless reciprocating saw can be had for so cheap - one catalytic converter could possible buy several. I know in Denver several years ago, all of the scrap yards and recycling places stopped taking them from anyone but pre-authorized recyclers. And you have to cough up an ID if you want to recycle any metals here now - theoretically to clamp down on some of this nonsense. But criminals gonna crime...

Devac  ·  1382 days ago  ·  link  ·  

You can also use those metals to electroplate stuff like jewelry and sell that. It's not that hard, and there's a market for it.