BANGOR – Thieves have long targeted stereos, radar detectors, air bags, compact discs and even pocket change from cars.

The latest item being snatched from cars and trucks has unsuspecting motorists scratching their heads. The targeted vehicle may look just fine but the exhaust lets out a NASCAR-like roar when the operator turns the key.

It turns out thieves are crawling under vehicles and cutting away catalytic converters, making them a hot commodity in more ways than one at scrap yards.

In Bangor, thieves brazenly removed catalytic converters in a busy hospital parking lot in broad daylight. Police also have fielded reports in recent weeks in Alabama, California, Louisiana, New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Tennessee.

Catalytic converters contain small amounts of valuable metals – platinum, rhodium and palladium – and the value of those precious metals has been growing. Likewise, prices paid by scrap yards for catalytic converters have grown from $5 to $30 a decade ago to today’s level of $5 to $100. Some can fetch up to $150.

“These thieves catch on quicker than us honest people,” said Kennie Andersen from Andersen Sales and Salvage Inc. in Greeley, Colo.

In Bangor, medical secretary Karen Thompson found out the hard way when she was summoned by hospital security to the parking lot, where someone had cut away the converters from several vehicles including her 2006 Toyota Tundra pickup truck.

The telltale evidence came when she started it. Because someone had sawed through the exhaust pipe, the truck rumbled as if there were no muffler.

“It was really, really loud. The rearview mirror shook,” Thompson recounted. The cost of replacement and repairs at her local Toyota dealership was $2,100.

Millions of catalytic converters have been put on cars and trucks since their introduction in 1974 to reduce tailpipe emissions.

Inside most of them is a ceramic honeycomb that’s coated in a material containing small amounts of platinum, rhodium and palladium, which serve as the catalyst to reduce emissions of unburned hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides.

The growth in catalytic converter thefts has followed the growing value of those precious metals, said Ashok Kumar of A-1 Specialized Services and Supplies, which buys catalytic converters by the truckload before they’re shipped for processing.

Platinum, for example, was selling for $400 an ounce in August 2001; the price is more than $1,100 today, Kumar said from his office in Croyton, Pa.

A small number of catalytic converters are refurbished and recertified for sale; the vast majority are sold as scrap, industry officials say.

Reputable recyclers are suspicious when someone shows up with a load of catalytic converters. But people in the scrap industry are aware of fly-by-night outfits that sweep up stolen catalytic converters, copper and other scrap, said Peter McAvoy, who runs Industrial Metal Recycling, which operates four scrap yards across Maine.

“It’s almost like a carnival sideshow. These guys are running around in 1-ton trucks and paying cash with no receipts,” he said. “It’s easy to convert these into cash, pardon the pun.”

The recycling industry is trying to come to terms with the thefts.

The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries issues e-mail alerts whenever thefts of converters are reported, said Bryan McGannon, spokesman for the trade group. The institute also urges its members to carefully screen suppliers and to photocopy the driver’s license of those who sell them, McGannon said.

“Playing by the rules is good business,” he said. “Nobody wants to be tied up in a police investigation where your materials are tied up for weeks.”

Police say the lure of quick cash is often irresistible to crooks – especially drug addicts who’re looking for fast cash to get their next hit.

Thieves tend to target sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks because they don’t have to be jacked up. They can simply slither under the vehicle and saw away the catalytic converter within minutes, investigators said.

In Bangor, the thefts from a busy hospital parking lot that’s patrolled by security staff illustrate the ease with which converters can be stolen.

Thompson remains incredulous that someone managed to crawl under her truck and cut away part of her exhaust system without attracting attention.

“It was pretty gutsy to do it in broad daylight,” she said.

Police say it’s hard to nail a thief unless they’re caught in the act, and that’s what happened last week across the river in Brewer.

Police received a report of a theft behind an auto repair shop. The thieves were gone by the time police arrived but the getaway car had backed into a snowbank and left an imprint of the license plate, said Brewer Police Detective Sgt. Jay Munson.

Brewer police used the license plate number and tire impressions in the snow to track down the car and secure a search warrant. Inside, investigators found two battery-powered saws, a portable jack and three catalytic converters, Munson said.

Despite increased vigilance, industry officials are not optimistic that the thefts will end any time soon. Andersen, who handles 60,000 to 70,000 catalytic converters a year in Colorado, said even scrap yards have had to take steps to protect against thefts.

“As scarce as money and jobs are, thieving is more economical than working for a living – until you’re caught, of course,” Andersen said.

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Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries http://www.isri.org/