Thieves Hit Oscar Mayer Wienermobile During Stopover
These Las Vegas thieves must not want to be an Oscar Mayer Weiner.
Thieves jacked the catalytic converter from the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile in Las Vegas earlier this month, according to KVVU-TV.
The vehicle — shaped like a massive hot dog — received repairs from a local truck company in order to become roadworthy again.
Someone stole the catalytic converter from the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile. https://t.co/u6e2ZENiw9
— Matthew Keys (@MatthewKeysLive) February 11, 2023
The Wienermobile was back on the road one day after receiving repairs, according to CBS News.
The Oscar Mayer Wienermobile is back on the road after its catalytic converter was stolen earlier this week. pic.twitter.com/bgFIAKAHSg
— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) February 12, 2023
It’s unclear if suspects have been arrested in connection to the converter theft.
Authorities have made busts of organized catalytic converter theft rings before, however.
A Phoenix man was charged with 40 counts of unlawful purchases after the Phoenix police found a mother lode of stolen catalytic converters in a storage unit last year.
#PHXPD recovers more than 1,000 used and detached catalytic converters from a storage unit while serving a search warrant.
This concludes a months long investigation into a suspect accused of buying and selling them. pic.twitter.com/OwKUYbIBsF— Phoenix Police (@PhoenixPolice) May 26, 2022
The devices can be stolen from the undercarriage of most cars with relative ease.
Some thieves are capable of slicing the valuable parts from cars in less than two minutes, according to the Phoenix New Times.
They contain three rare earth metals that thieves can sell to unscrupulous scrappers for profit — platinum, palladium and rhodium.
The increasing frequency of catalytic converter thefts has led some states to up criminal penalties for those involved in their unlawful sale.
The Arizona legislature passed a law last year criminalizing the sale of a used catalytic converter in cases where it isn’t being installed on a vehicle, according to the New Times.
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