Palladium shortage triggers waves of catalytic converter thefts

(marketplace.org) - Palladium is a rare and precious metal that’s used in jewelry, dentistry, flutes and in the catalytic converters that are part of car exhaust systems. Avo Bagramyan, who runs Avo’s Automotive in Los Angeles, said he’s been getting a special kind of call recently, and a lot of them. “I’ll get a phone call and someone will be like, ‘Hey, I went to go start my car this morning, and it was very, very loud.’ And right away, we can make the determination that, ‘Hey, you know, it was a catalytic converter theft,'” Bagramyan said.