Thar’s gold in them thar catalytic converters. Not gold, really, but precious metals of even greater value – rhodium, platinum and palladium. And people with a larcenous bent are ripping them off at an exhaustive pace.

From California to the Carolinas, media accounts are rife with reports of multiple thefts typically targeting repairers, car dealers and anyone else who parks a vehicle outside.

“The bill to replace your catalytic converter can be several thousands of dollars, and the automobile is inoperable and illegal to drive until it’s replaced,” notes Ian Monat at Monat Technologies, which in June started marketing the Catlock, which secures a customer’s converter with form-fitting steel plates connected to the frame with a cable.

In Raleigh, N.C., 13 converters were recently stolen from vehicles awaiting repair at Foster’s Collision. Paul’s Japanese Auto in Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif. has initiated a customer converter VIN engraving program; demand was heightened after several were cut from cars parked outside the Saddleback Church.

The engraving costs $25 to $40 and takes about 10 to 15 minutes after the exhaust is allowed to cool for about an hour. “It makes them less likely to be stolen,” says the shop’s Nate Moody, who notes that shady potential purchasers will balk at fencing such an item upon seeing an inscribed ID, telling the thief, “I’m not going to waste my time here.”

The replacement cost for the victim is somewhere between $400 and $2,300, according to strategic analyst Joshua Stanfill at the NICB. Collateral damage can include oxygen sensors, wiring harnesses and other parts.

“They just go under them with A combination of rechargeable reciprocating saws, SUVs and light trucks that sit high off the ground, and unscrupulous scrap dealers make heisting a converter a relatively quick and easy crime, according to Frank G. Scafidi, director of public affairs at the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB).

Some reported thefts may be the work of a vehicle owner with a loud exhaust seeking a complimentary replacement component.

“It’s a lot cheaper than going to the parts counter,” Scafidi quips, adding that most of the crimes are committed by culprits with a backseat or pickup bed filled with the devices. “It’s ridiculous to see the lengths some people will go to to make a buck,” says Glen Haywood, owner of Good Works Auto Repair in Tempe, Ariz., where police have formed a special task force to attack the problem. A stolen converter can be sold in the region for $100 to $300. For a converter thief, “Even if it’s just 50 bucks for five minutes of work it’s not bad,” he points out.

All a thief needs to do is locate " a battery powered saw” and start hacking away, says Haywood, who was featured on a local television news report discussing the issue. He has had “dozens of people” approach him to say they saw him on TV. The correspondent is a customer of the shop who asked if she could come by with a camera crew that afternoon to do an interview. He said yes, and “I got a huge audience.”

Converter thefts are so widespread throughout the Tempe area, Haywood observes, that even three CARQUEST delivery trucks were hit.

While hard figures regarding these crimes are difficult to come by because the units are typically not traceable, the NICB reports that 1,388 catalytic converter theft claims were filed in the first six months of 2008, which is more than the entire amount recorded from 2004 through 2007.

“There has always been a level of these thefts,” says Scafidi, but the thievery tends to escalate in concert with rising scrap metal prices.

Currently rhodium is trading at $1,800 per ounce, platinum brings $1,219 and palladium can be sold for $260 an ounce. (Gold nets $955.50.) Converters contain these precious metals because they create a reaction that lessens the toxicity hot gases flowing toward the tailpipe.

It can be assumed that a hefty amount of thefts from repairers are not reported because the proprietor wishes to discreetly handle the matter internally. A shop that had five customer converters stolen became aware that its garage keeper’s insurance policy treats each victimized vehicle as a separate claim, complete with a $500 individual deductible amounting to $2,500. The vehicles were quietly made whole again: “We fixed them ourselves because it would have been too expensive to turn in, and our insurance rate probably would have gone up.”

Not surprisingly, operations that park several vehicles outside in unsecured lots are especially vulnerable.

“It’s like they had a creeper, we’ve seen it multiple times where they had them all lined up,” says Daryl Allegree, risk engineering manager for Zurich Insurance. “A few vehicles have two converters on them, which makes them even more attractive targets.”

“Thieves no longer have to steal an entire car for a nice payday,” according to Zurich risk engineering consultant Tim Feazell, who prepared a bulletin on the matter entitled Gone in 90 Seconds – Catalytic Converter Theft.

“Thieves are attracted to catalytic converters for two reasons: Low risk and high reward,” he says. “Converters can be removed quickly, often in less than two minutes, with only a wrench for converters that are bolted on or a reciprocating saw for converters that are welded in. And because thieves can ‘work’ undetected under the vehicle, converters can be stolen in broad daylight.”