The police report a case in Umkirch.
On Tuesday night, the catalytic converter was cut off and stolen from a Mercedes in Umkirch. Police suspect the thieves are looking for precious metal components. According to ADAC, the number of such thefts, mainly affecting older vehicles, is on the rise.
The police also confirm this. If the number of cat thefts in 2021 was still in the single digits, this year it is already in the double digits, “it’s a significant increase,” explains Johannes Saiger from the Freiburg police station. In Umkirch an old Mercedes C-Class parked on Brugesstrasse has now hit. It was probably lifted with a mobile jack and the cat removed with a cutting wheel, according to the district of Breisach and asking witnesses below tel. 07667/91170.
A flex would not have been used if the cat had been professionally enlarged with a view to continuing to use it. Rather, the authors’ very fast action associated with the noise fits an ADAC observation. In February, under the heading “Flex out, Kat out,” he reported a dramatic increase in such thefts.
In 2021, the automobile club’s road patrol recorded 959 cases, more than double the number in 2020. Older vehicles with petrol engines, in which the three-way catalytic converter is installed centrally under the floor of the car, are especially affected. and is therefore easily accessible. In newer vehicles, according to ADAC, the emission control system is installed close to the engine and is therefore much more difficult for thieves to reach.
The thieves were targeting precious metals used in catalytic converters, such as platinum or palladium, ADAC spokeswoman Katja Legner explained on request. A catalyst contains only a few grams of these raw materials, but they are in demand and are correspondingly expensive to trade on the market. The ADAC spokeswoman advises that if a cat is stolen, you should never drive the extremely loud car, as the engine could be damaged. Instead, the car should be towed to a repair shop. And of course you should call the police.
