First, imagine a metal part that saws off easily. This part can be easily found under a car and that is the way that thieves struck.

    In recent years, the price of metals like, palladium, platinum, and rhodium, have soared. This has not gone unnoticed by the criminal underworld, unfortunately.

    For many car owners, an attack on your car may not be an obvious case of metal theft.  Thieves have been lurking around vehicles, slicing away at the catalytic converter.

    The tricky part is linking the thief to the crime.   Thieves are using power saws to cut through the exasust pipes and removing the converter.

    Thieves use tools like reciprocating saws to cut through the pipe and chop off the catalytic converter.  This saws blade has motion of moving  back and forth sawing down into the catalyst.

    A standard reciprocating saw doesn't leave an easy trail and so proving who did it is tough.

    Forensic investigators may find fingerprints or DNA, but many times these tests are of little use.

    The growing police challenge is to link crimes to saw marks.

    The saw leaves unique marks on the catalyst converter which might help to associate the saw with the crime.

    This is because the saws tip makes unique marks when it cuts into the catalyst.

    Using a microscope, we get a closer look at the marks made on the catalyst. The problem is that the sw likely has marks on it too.

    Realizing these subtle marks is the key. But how often  do we see toolmarks close ups in black and white .

    This requires a close monitoring of the cutting mechanism itself as well as the blade. The saw leaves unique marks on the catalyst and this a future advantage for police.  Consider how the saws blade gets marks with every cut, the first was the best but each time the blade does a cut it leaves it with a new mark

    This is important because, if you make a wrong cut, then you can track back to the saw.  The problem is that police often don't have the time to look deeper into marks on a saw.

The Slashed Mystery: Tracking The Enigmatic Saw

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