Holmdel Home Raided: Catalytic Converter Theft Ring Bust
The dude had a necklace custom made. Dateline, New Jersey. From the “Pride Cometh Before the Fall” file comes this. One of the heads of a national catalytic converter thievery…
SAN RAFAEL, CALIFORNIA – JULY 11: Luis Benitez welds a new catalytic converter onto a Chevrolet Silverado at Johnny Franklin’s Muffler on July 11, 2022 in San Rafael, California. Thefts of catalytic converters are surging across the nation as thieves seek out precious metals like platinum, palladium and rhodium that fill the inside of the antipollution car part. Thefts have nearly tripled since the beginning of the pandemic with over 50,000 in 2021 compared to under 20,000 in 2020. Vehicle owners are having to pay thousands of dollars to replace the stolen parts and in some cases can’t get the parts due to supply chain issues. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
(Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)The dude had a necklace custom made.
Dateline, New Jersey.
From the “Pride Cometh Before the Fall” file comes this.
One of the heads of a national catalytic converter thievery crime ring was just busted in Holmdel, New Jersey. According to NBC News the feds raided the 1.7 million dollar home of Navin Khanna; whose nickname is: “Lovin”.
One of the things that got federal agents interested in Lovin is when he posted a picture on his Instagram of a new piece of custom jewelry he had made for himself.
It was a hand-made necklace in the shape of a catalytic converter. That's a very specific item to have made to hang around your neck. Fed prolly thought, "hey that's got to be a homage to the thing that has made this guy so rich: stolen catalytic converters. Let's have a look into him."
Why are people stealing catalytic converters and what exactly are they? They're the thing that's underneath your car, part of the exhaust system. The job of the catalytic converter is to remove a lot of the bad pollution that the combustion engine creates. They're filled with precious metals like platinum, palladium and rhodium. It's become such a problem that some mechanics are offering a service to etch an ID number (like the car's VIN number) in your catalytic converter.
Lovin is just one of 21 defendants who were taken into custody as part of this nationwide crackdown on catalytic converter thefts.
