Thanks to rising prices of precious metals, catalytic converters have suddenly become a hot commodity for auto thieves.The converters, which help reduce exhaust emissions, contain platinum and other metals that make them valuable to companies that recondition the parts. This makes them perfect targets for thieves looking for quick cash. Illegally sold converters can bring about $100 each, local mechanics say, and the repairs are even more expensive for the victims of such thefts.Thefts rise with pricesCatalytic converters contain a combination of platinum, palladium and rhodium, all three of which have seen significant price jumps in futures markets. Earlier this week, the New York Mercantile Exchange listed January prices of platinum at $1,118.50 an ounce.In comparison, gold prices were expected to reach about $625 per ounce by March.The converters are the latest target in metal thefts that have occurred throughout the country in recent years. Reports of brazen thefts like copper wiring stolen from heating and air conditioning units and aluminum gutters and siding taken from houses have become commonplace.The metals in the converters are in a honeycomb-shaped substrate, a porous bed that harmful emissions of hydrocarbons and nitrous oxides pass through to be converted into safer gases. Without the converter, those emissions can reach illegal levels, and create a pretty awful sound in the process. News source: Ashland City TImes