Columbia police are investigating the theft of a catalytic converter from a white 2006 Ford truck that was parked at B&H Machine, 251 Southwoods Drive.

The theft was reported Dec. 1 but may have occurred sometime over the pat 8-10 days, police said.

Police say catalytic converters are stolen because they’re valuable to scrap metal dealers. They contain precious metals, including rhodium, platinum and palladium.