Dealers Threatened by Both Low-Tech, High-Tech Crime A common problem is that dealerships may not be vigilant enough. To put it more positively, Federated Insurance investigator Andris Berzins says dealerships understandably may be “too” welcoming because, after all, they’re trying to sell cars. Low-tech crime poses a serious threat to dealerships, too, even though high-tech crime gets most of the headlines, says Andris Berzins, Special Investigations Unit team supervisor for Federated Insurance. For example, there’s catalytic converter theft, where thieves steal the emissions-control devices and sell them to scrappers who recover the precious metals inside. Each converter contains just a few grams of materials such as rhodium, palladium and platinum, but those bits add up. Pure rhodium fetched $14,500 per ounce in December 2020, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau.