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Somebody stealing catalytic converters from cars in one Cambridge neighborhood

Cambridge Police report somebody cut and removed the catalytic converters from three cars in North Cambridge last week.

Shortly after 8 a.m. on Friday, a Rindge Avenue resident reported his car had had its catalytic converter removed while parked outside.

A Walden Square Road resident reported his or her car had had its catalytic converter removed, sometime between 5 p.m. on Wednesday and 7 a.m. on Thursday.

A Jackson Place resident reported somebody cut and stole her car's catalytic converter while it sat in her apartment building's parking lot, sometime between 3:15 p.m. on Wednesday and 6:45 a.m. on Thursday.

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Comments

could this be an indicator that there's a problem with the economy?

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Just like the grocery store shrimp thieves - who are clearly selling them through the back door to some restaurants.

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They are typically sold for scrap for their copper.

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The catalyst in a catalytic converter is platinum metal, a couple of grams (50ish dollars worth at current prices) in a car, more in bigger trucks, There isn't a meaningful amount of copper.

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Cats don't typically use copper as a catalyst (nor are any significant parts typically made of it), and the precious metals they do use are relatively hard to recover:

https://iscrapapp.com/blog/how-scrap-catalytic-converter-prices-are-dete...

I find the shady mechanic hypothesis to be at least as credible as selling for scrap. I realize the scrap metal industry has a questionable reputation, but it'd be pretty hard to claim any sort of plausible deniability if somebody keeps showing up with cats.

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But since when do desperate addicts consider the challenges of recovery before succumbing to an impulse? (Only kidding as I don’t know these thieves are addicts but the pun worked to well in my head to pass up.)

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Just looked up the NYT write-up on catalytic converter thieves. Was recalling from memory. But you are right. The paper describes thieves targeting these parts for their platinum.

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Commuter rail parking lots have been hit hard for years by these thieves . Just put one in a Corrola, 755 for just the aftermarket part.

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What the...

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It's ...

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