Guilty pleas in California, and charges pending in New Jersey.
3 Plead Guilty in $600 Million Converter Theft Ring
3 Plead Guilty in $600 Million Converter Theft Ring
Good News about Cat Converter Thefts
- Thread starter Rhymingmechanic
- Start date
Not surprised. The evidence is overwhelming.
On an aside speaking of theft rings this one is interesting.
Pastor serves as middleman.
Holy cow.
I thought the cat thefts around here were over a couple of years ago, due to laws restricting places accepting them.
But thefts began to rise again. I hate thieves; they always find a way...
Since they couldn't sell them here, they shipped them to another state.
But thefts began to rise again. I hate thieves; they always find a way...
Since they couldn't sell them here, they shipped them to another state.
I feel like it’s slowed down a bit. For a while we’d get calls at the parts store literally every day asking for prices on a cat because theirs got stolen. And that’s only the people who weren’t going through insurance! Now it’s a few times a month.
That’s because restricting the law abiding citizens/businesses never solves the root cause. Catching, prosecuting and putting the actual criminals in jail solves the problem.
When it comes to organize ring like this, you don’t want to rush where due to lack of abundance of evidence, they get lower sentences etc. You really want to nail it.
You speak of them in past tense, as if this will magically stop the thefts.
Uh, without laws, how do you prosecute people?
AZjeff
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“When it comes to organize ring like this, you don’t want to rush where due to lack of abundance of evidence, they get lower sentences etc. You really want to nail it.”
The evidence being 1000s more people becoming victims? Seems reasonable.
The evidence being 1000s more people becoming victims? Seems reasonable.
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So you’re saying there were no laws to prosecute converter thefts before?
Perhaps it's because emissions enforcement is done passively at the lowest cost possible? Stealing a CAT may be no different than stealing rims in the eyes of local law enforcement. It takes a lot of thefts before someone suspects a ring and when they do they want to catch everyone. That can take a long time.
LEO (ex, FBI, DEA, etc) and the DOJ are expensive to deploy so they want to get the maximum out of their investigations. Nickel and dime charges don't offer a good return on investment.
No; of course the theft was illegal. The laws put in a few years back were to stop recyclers from accepting stolen cats. This took away the reason to steal them and worked very well, for years. What happened next was crime rings buying them and shipping them out of state; the theft rate rose again. Those laws are what prosecuted the crime rings.
Nobody steals a cat because they want it for their own car-- they do it because there are other criminals that buy stolen cats. Without a way to fence it to money, many fewer things would be stolen.
Perhaps an overriding trend is that the price of cat metals has gone down.
Perhaps an overriding trend is that the price of cat metals has gone down.
That's how it used to be here. I guess your scrappers are buying CA cats?
The issue is most of these convertor thefts are not Joe Smith bringing them to the local scrap yard, it is organized rings like in the OP where the converters are being shipped out of the country.
My sister had the convertor sawzall'ed off her 2003 Acura about 6 months ago while it was parked at a shopping plaza. When she notified the police, they told her 60 cars in the same area were affected that night. That isn't a few guys with a sawzall.
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