jaxon van derbeken, nbc bay area news. >>> up next, we haven't seen numbers like this in more than 50 years. we're going to break down the latest unemployment reports. >>> straight off of your car and onto the black market. catalytic converters are right now a hot commodity in the criminal community, it could cost you thousands of dollars to replace. we'll go undercover to see who's buying them and how to stop the thieves. >>> i'm chief meteorologist jeff ranieri. i'll have the latest on any travel delays, also if you're traveling in california and what you can expect for thanksgiving in a few minutes >>> okay. almost every night thieves are cutting the catalytic converters off people's cars, many times right from your own driveway. it can cost you thousands of dollars to replace. >> the catalytic converter is underneath your car by the way. so what are thieves doing with it after they steal it and how can we stop all this. chris chmura is here. >> we've got to cut this off. take a look at these photos from a handful of the police raids that we know about. cops have caught crooks with

jaxon van derbeken has the story. >> they did say it's not uncommon because these poles are very old. >> reporter: you may remember bob chase from the summer of last year when a rotted pg&e power pole fell next to his back yard, dropping an electrical line into his pool, luckily, no one was swimming at the time. >> we thought that was fairly normal for an old pole like that. >> reporter: turns out that severely rotted pole was not the only one the inspector had give and 100% rating. they missed other poles nearby. so bad they should have been blatantly obvious if they'd actually been checked. so the utility was just ordered to reinspect nearly 5,000 poles that questionable inspector had vouched for back in 2015. including 200 in high-fire-threat areas. >> that's a huge danger. >> reporter: kathryn sandoval says they need to set a firm timetable for the utility to deal with the risk and make sure customers don't end up paying the tab. >> so this risk is so much bigger than the work of one inspector who did a really bad job for the danville circuit. >> reporter: we've learned that pg&e