Grand Theft Auto Parts

Platinum cracked $2,000 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That's great news for mining companies, refiners, traders — and car thieves.

All across North America, from Sacramento to Montreal, thieves have been hacking catalytic converters off parked cars and selling them to scrap yards.

What's spurring the stealing spree is a small amount of platinum in converters, the pollution-control devices in cars' exhaust system. Platinum inside the converters reacts with nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and other pollutants in car exhaust, and breaks them down to less-toxic gases.

Catalytic converters have been required on all cars in the United States since 1974, according to the chemicals and metals company Johnson Matthey. That's a lot of cars.

Unlike other valuable car parts, catalytic converters are exposed, making them sitting ducks. All one has to do is slide under the car and either saw off or unbolt the converter. Minivans, pickup trucks, and port-utility vehicles are prime targets, reports the Canadian Press, because they sit high off the ground. No one's the wiser until the owner attempts to start the car and hears a ghastly roar.

Replacing a catalytic converter is costly, anywhere from $400 to $900 for one affixed beneath a Toyota pickup, a Toyota dealer in Manhattan says. If the thief damages the exhaust system while extracting the converter, repairs can cost thousands of dollars.

Compare that with what a thief can net for each piece he steals: as little as $45 at a scrap yard, according to the World Herald News Service, because each one contains only a small bit of platinum and other platinum group metals.

Still, the incentive is unlike to abate soon — and may grow. The sudden surge in prices is due to an energy crisis in South Africa, the chief supplier of the world's platinum, the Associated Press reported. South African mines are operating on only 90 percent of their normal power supply, and may continue at that level for the next four years.

by Jennifer Lai

Platinum price chart courtesy of Johnson Matthey.