Catalytic Converter Thefts

[mattwithcats]

Local Police have been etching VIN’s on cats around here.

Either a Dremel or punch and die kit would also work.

https://www.wavy.com/news/local-new...heft-hampton-pd-hosting-etch-and-catch-event/

 

[dishdude]

Local Police have been etching VIN’s on cats around here.

Either a Dremel or punch and die kit would also work.

https://www.wavy.com/news/local-new...heft-hampton-pd-hosting-etch-and-catch-event/

I can't see that doing much, the people buying them know they're stolen. Some undercover busts of the buyers and suing the scrappers they end up at is what is needed.

 

[Kruse]

My wife is the greener person between the two of us and she keeps and crushes aluminum cans. (Me, I’m not as diligent) Anyway, about a week ago I took in a pickup load of aluminum can to the local scrap yard. The employees weighed my cans, gave me a receipt and I went inside to get my money. When I went inside, my blood immediately boiled because there was a lady with sores on her face and was missing a few teeth ( pretty sure I know how she got that way) cashing in various catalytic converters. I was peeved because they were giving her good money without asking any questions and there’s obviously no laws against it. (This was in Nebraska)
But guess what, I’ve got a few vehicles that will be scrapped during the next few months an I decided that I’m now going to cut the cats off and sell them separately.

 

[JC1]

I would say weld a bunch of braided steel cables under it if there's enough room. And if you do catch a would be thief break their legs with a baseball bat, take their cordless saw and carve up their face with it.

My buddy over 25 years ago caught a guy stealing the car stereo out of his wife's car at a hockey arena. He was the victim of car stereo and car theft and the cops never caught anyone. Needless to say he beat the crap out of the guy then brought him into the arena and let the 15+ other guys have a turn. He also.smashed in the guys windshield and broke off his wiper blades.

 

[dishdude]

My buddy over 25 years ago caught a guy stealing the car stereo out of his wife's car at a hockey arena. He was the victim of car stereo and car theft and the cops never caught anyone. Needless to say he beat the crap out of the guy then brought him into the arena and let the 15+ other guys have a turn. He also.smashed in the guys windshield and broke off his wiper blades.

I can't support shooting a thief, but this I can get onboard with.

 

[Traction]

I somewhat help nab 2 converter bandits just Friday. The appliance store next to the car wash I do maintenance at had the converters cut off one their delivery trucks the second time in a month. The police contacted me to look at the 18 video cameras I had installed 3 years ago, and they showed up on 6 cameras coming and going next door at 5:15 am. They had been cutting them off all over the area for months.

 

[PimTac]

A lot of jurisdictions don’t even prosecute thefts like this. Thieves might get processed then released. In fact the police won’t respond except in certain cases like a auto repair place reporting multiple thefts. That would be for the business insurance.

 

[LazyDog]

I went through this on my CRV twice until I install a very cheap cat. I have the OEM on the rafters and come testing time, every 2 years. I make the switch and it gets removed right away.

 

[Andrew1972]

Live life and hope for the best.

 

[NitroM3]

Guess it’s a good argument for a CATless exhaust, remap the ECU. Then return it back to oem when you sell the he vehicle. Not legal by any means and I am not suggesting to modify the exhaust I am just thinking a thought out loud .

 

[Nick1994]

Lower your comprehensive deductible to $0 or $100

 

[2EHA]

underfloor cats are easy victims

people that know what they’re doing stick to the low hanging fruit

 

[Hall]

I’ve got a few vehicles that will be scrapped during the next few months an I decided that I’m now going to cut the cats off and sell them separately.

When I looked at scrapping my old Accord, the yard was very, very interested in confirming it still had a complete exhaust system and whether or not it was OEM components or not. I'm confident if I told them the cat was stolen or it was aftermarket, the $$ they offered me would have went down. I almost think they weren't too interested in the car and more interested in the catalytic converter.

 

[MacManus99]

My friend was borrowing his father in laws car, cat got swiped while it was in his possession. It was only the secondary cat, but regardless, not a good deal.

 

[Tomioka]

What ticks me off are the jerks that buy stolen cats and stolen anything for that matter.

Not a surprise this is located in New Jersey. https://rrcats.com/ship/

Wow can't believe it's that easy. Probably the same way that shady cat buyers do and that's why they need to crackdown on the buyers.

I had a difficult time selling a cat from an old truck I was doing an engine swap on because they wanted a copy of my ID and records of the vehicle the cat came off of. Second time I changed out a dead cat from a Toyota I cut it up and threw it in the trash can instead. This was 15 or so years ago when cat theft was unheard of here. Now it's rampant and police aren't cracking down on the buyers, same way how illegal stuff arrives here.

 

[TeamZero]

It never used to be a thing up here much but has gotten bad the last few months. The worst part is, around here, they are not careful where they cut, so they end up ruining everything else all around it. Ram they got last week, tore up all 4 o2 sensors, and poked holes in floor. Year old mitsu suv on lot, ruined front pipe and o2s, and cut large section from rear pipe. Yr old Honda van, same thing ruined everything else close to cat. These are getting up around 6k+ to fix, and parts backordered for weeks or months.

 

[parshisa]

Company I work for has an office in Houston near by the willowbrook mall. When i got hire on back in April first thing HSE person asked me was if I have a Tundra truck - apparently these have been the most targeted for cat theft. Every other week (both during day and night), someone's is loosing a catalytic converter being stolen from the cars parked at the parking lot right in front of the office. just ridiculous

 

[svtrit]

I only got $30 for the one off of my Beetle. The didn't ask a lot of questions, but I had the whole pipe from the manifold to the Muffler and it still had the unplugged 02 Sensor it in.

 

[Malo83]

Guess it’s a good argument for a CATless exhaust, remap the ECU. Then return it back to oem when you sell the he vehicle. Not legal by any means and I am not suggesting to modify the exhaust I am just thinking a thought out loud .

I ran dual exhaust on my 83 Silverado back in the early days with turbos, went to a local muffler shop and had the stock single exhaust and cat taken down in 3 sections for easy reinstall when I had to do my smog tests.

 

[NitroM3]

I ran dual exhaust on my 83 Silverado back in the early days with turbos, went to a local muffler shop and had the stock single exhaust and cat taken down in 3 sections for easy reinstall when I had to do my smog tests.

Those were the days!

I am not sure how long you have lived in Ca but years ago the CARB set up sniffer station along the highways to detect polluters and vehicles that had a high emissions exhaust like removing your CAT.

Well they did last long, a few of got that they would set those sniffer's up and have the equipment powered by gas generators like a lawn mower engine (Briggs) and many were smokers. We took picture I used my hand held EGA to register the exhaust output of HC's and sent them to channel 6 News. Shortly statewide they shut down the sniffer stations.

I should mention that is is Felony to operate any vehicle that came with a CAT to remove the CAT and enter any Federal reservation. This means as an example Federal Parks.