Catalytic Converter Theft Still A Thing? For Sure In Amarillo.

It's one of those things you couldn't have possibly thought about.

We worry about leaving things out in the yard or something as simple as Christmas decorations. I mean we worry about our cars being stolen outright.

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But if you would've told me a few years back that the car would be left there, but the catalytic converter was going to be peeled out from underneath the car, I would've looked at you with crazy eyes.

Over the last couple of years, we have seen a SHARP spike in thefts of that exact part, and it's not going away.

The spike started back in 2020. We saw the number of them stolen almost double the previous year. It went from 98 taken in 2019 to 183 in 2020.

Enter 2021 where the number more than doubled all the way up to 488 getting swiped. As of this year, we've had 225 reported as stolen, so if that number holds, we'll see it decrease for the first time in a few years.

It's still not an encouraging trend or number however and we're on pace to top 400 again.

So what it is about catalytic converters? It's not just a problem in Amarillo, it's happening all over the country.

Inside the converters, there are three different types of metal that people are after. Platinum, palladium, and rhodium.

The reason they want the metals inside the converter is that the price of those metals has significantly risen over the last few years. People are paying good money right now for those metals, and with one car piece having all three inside, it makes it an easy target.

You can help stop the theft of them by leaving lights on outside your house, keeping your car parked very close to your house, or installing easily seen security cameras to fend off the thieves.