The Orange County District Attorney’s (OCDA) office recently teamed up with Buena Park, La Palma, and Cypress police to combat catalytic converter thefts. During the June 12 event, residents could bring their vehicles to Buena Park, Calif. to have their catalytic converters etched with their license plate numbers, connecting the converters to the vehicles in the event of a theft. The initiative came after police locally and nationally reported a rise in stolen catalytic converters. The crime trend is due to the precious metals that are inside the parts, such as rhodium, palladium, and platinum, with rhodium being sold for up to $25,000 per ounce. “It’s devastating to people who are the victim of it because they can’t drive their car after the catalytic converter is stolen,” OCDA spokesperson Kimberly Edds told The Epoch Times. “And then because so many are being stolen right now, there’s a huge backlog in even ordering the replacement parts for these vehicles. So people …