https://archive.is/htd4v

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The largest investigation in the history of the Tulsa Police Department began with a routine traffic stop. On the afternoon of May 2, 2021, an off-duty officer reported a suspicious white pickup truck driving through the southeastern part of the city with “multiple catalytic converters in the bed.” Oklahoma, like the rest of the country, had been experiencing an astonishing rise in thefts of the devices—astonishing in part because many car owners don’t even know what their catalytic converter is, or why it’s worth stealing, until it’s gone.
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Yet the case still might have fizzled if not for the presence, in Tulsa’s Riverside Street Crimes Unit, of an officer with the improbable name Kansas Core. At age 28, with a military bearing and a perpetual high-and-tight haircut, he looked the part. “He’s not this undercover, crazy-looking bearded guy,” says the street crimes unit supervisor, Lieutenant Brad Staggs. “He’s like, ‘You’re a cop.’ ” Core had been on the force for fewer than three years and was green enough that his move to street crimes “kind of ruffled feathers,” Staggs says. But a commander had elevated him there after seeing a certain industriousness and precision in him.

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We are seeing and hearing more loud cars on the road around here of late.

Seems a certain element is cutting the converter off their own cars to sell. It would be funny if it weren't so annoying.

even though i live in a small town, and being a police commissioner for many years [and looking like the scruffy, long hair, under cover guy], having this town on one of [if not the] busiest exits of I-80 in pa. results in quite a few of unsavory characters showing up. [some getting a "free" stay in our "crossbar" hotel. ]
at times, a few cats come up missing, but mostly it's those damn drugs.......... having three truck stops adds to the issue[s].
we are fortunate to have a [small but] good police force here. lots of drugs, guns, and money have been taken off the streets.
you would think by now, the word on the streets would be out that we don't tolerate this $hit. however, dopers are not smart, and the dealers are greedy...............

Thanks for posting this.

I live in Tulsa and was aware of this take down but have never seen such and in-depth story about it.

At the time it did not appear that DG the ultimate buyer back east was taken down and now I learn that they are in jail.

Great work by the TPD and others.

Thank you for that interesting article.

I want to know where these people are selling cats for big money. I have some cats in my pile o junk, but around here nobody pays more then $15 per cat.

I am no thief but $15 seems like it isn't worth stealing.

Had my cat (1 of 3) stolen out of my truck. It's an epidemic here (northern california). Luckily was able to get back on the road economically but I was getting quoted > $3K...it's a racket all around.

If it was bad in the area I lived I'd cut it off myself and straight pipe it, why be a sitting duck?

The oem cat on my mom's Dodge mini van got plugged up, we had it replaced at a friend's shop. He told me to take it in for scrap. It was worth $300. The new one was $600 installed. For a druggie or an alcoholic, a hack saw or battery powered Sawzall and a few minutes under a truck is good for a long drunk or high.

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Each one contains a “core” that includes less than a quarter-ounce of the precious metals platinum, palladium and rhodium, known as platinum group metals, or PGMs. Detach the cylinder, and that core can be extracted, crushed, smelted and refined, releasing its metals to be resold on the global market.

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I wonder if that should read more correctly:

“includes a quarter of a troy ounce EACH of the precious metals platinum, palladium and rhodium, adding up to a total of 3/4 of a Troy ounce of PGMs.”

It probably costs considerable money to extract those PGMs from the old converter shell and purify them to sell again.

If the NOx emissions would be relaxed to a more scientifically reasonable level, the engines air to fuel ratio could be run lean enough that HC and CO emissions could be met without the Cat Con.

It truly is highly expensive bad policy

Do not dare ask about all the NOx emitted by the world’s fleet of jet airplanes

I doubt there is 3/4 ounce of PGMs in your average cat, 1/4 ounce seems more reasonable, it is so thin you can't even see it in there just a microscopic layer on the ceramic honeycomb. Think of all the pollution made mining, transporting ore and refining that much PGMs though, the chemicals used to deposit it in the honeycomb are brutal, and the carbon burned to make the shell and the ceramics... 8 to 10 tons of ore need to be processed to get one single ounce of platinum.

If NOX emissions were relaxed they could also raise the compression ratio on pretty much every modern N/A engine AT MINIMUM one full point and delete EGR valves and get a 5% MPG improvement just based on those very simple modifications.

I was really surprised years ago when I read that some sea creatures somehow concentrate rare earth metals from seawater and use them to make part of their shells.

There are so many creatures in the present seas.

I wonder if somewhere, at some depth, there is a presently unknown sea creature that concentrates platinum group metals in their shells?

Some asteroids are suspected to have high concentrations of platinum group metals and gold.
NASA has a mission planned to go visit one, but they got funding by claiming mainly that they wanted to gain knowledge about the chemistry of a “core” of a planet.