Locals nabbed for converter thefts

Here in Colorado you have to show an I.D. to scrap anything but aluminum cans.
But still converter thefts are rampant here.
Do they sell them out of state? Or?
 
Here in Colorado you have to show an I.D. to scrap anything but aluminum cans.
But still converter thefts are rampant here.
Do they sell them out of state? Or?
I took a ~2 gallon bucket of misc metals that I collected from the house while doing renovations, repairs, etc. Things like random pieces of copper piping, brass vent valve from a water heater, etc. They made me fill out a form with my name, address, etc as well as my car's year, make, model, and plate #. I get it too.... In my case, it was really misc pieces, yet people show up with a trunk full of 6' pieces of copper pipe or electric wire that most people are thinking they stripped this stuff from an empty house. They record the same information, weigh it, and pay 'em though !! As long as the police don't track back the theft and link it to the sale at the scrap yard, nothing happens. How could they connect the two anyway ?
 
The real criminals are the ones buying cats and alternators from the thieves. That should get serious jail time. I'm sick of white collar crime.
I didn't realize people were stealing alternators too. Some cars they're not that easy to remove.
 
I didn't realize people were stealing alternators too. Some cars they're not that easy to remove.
When I read that post from ecotourist, I presumed it was a typo. Never heard of people stealing alternators.
 
When I read that post from ecotourist, I presumed it was a typo. Never heard of people stealing alternators.
Yes, I've heard of junkies stealing copper wires off telephone poles. Happened to one company site in NYC back in the 90s. Couldn't call them for a week as that's how long it took for the telephone company to run new wires. Not alternators though. If they're that accomplished, they should be getting paid for it.
 
City school buses are getting their batteries stolen also.

I wouldn’t buy a pickup truck since access to steal the catalytic converter is sooo easy.
 
The comments "won't do any jail time" are so true.

I'll make this story as short as I can: Several years ago, I had a late 50s Chevy panel van and an early 40s GMC pickup stolen from my property. First, neither vehicle was running, so both had to be trailered away. (That's somewhat important) Anyway, I stopped into the police station and the first lady I talked to wanted me to forget about it because "they are scrapped, stripped and long gone". I insisted they file a police report. The policeman assigned to the case was going to the area where the vehicle had been stolen, but we had several inches of snow about 4 days later and when I called him, he told me the snow would have covered any evidence. :oops: I kept my niece involved with all this because she was a state trooper in my state and knew a lot of people and called around to area law enforcement agencies to pressure them to keep investigate my thefts. However, at this time I gave up all hope to have the vehicles recovered.
About four months later, I get a call from her. It turns out somebody had stolen a riding lawn mower from a guy's yard during the winter and drove away with it when there was snow on the ground. :ROFLMAO: The police simply followed the lawn mower tracks in the snow to where the mower disappeared behind a fence. They then got a search warrant and went behind the fence to investigate. They found about $100K worth of stolen property behind the fence, arrested the owner and then started to call the owners of the stolen property to tell them that their stuff had been found. Luckily, I had valid titles to my stolen vehicles so it was easy to identify my stolen vehicles. My niece actually called me to tell me my stolen vehicles had been recovered. The area where they were recovered was about 90 minutes away from me and the out-of-county police department told me that I would received a victim's compensation for my trouble getting them home. I asked them how long they would hold my vehicles and they said the case had to be signed off by the county judge, the chief of police and the prosecuting DA before I could get them back, but they'd give me plenty of advance notice when I needed to pick them up. Fast forward about two months later and I get a call from the police on a Tuesday afternoon that my vehicles had to be out of the police impound yard in 48 hours or they would be given eminent domain and they would be sold on public auction. :((So much for the plenty of advance notice) I tool the next day off of work to bring them home. Remember, this police impound yard was about 90 minutes away from me. I get there and the impound yard tells me I have to pay a $150 fee for the storage of my vehicles, but the towing fee had been waived as a goodwill gesture. :LOL: I brought up the fact that there was a victim's compensation fund coming my way, but I was then informed that because I was from a different county I couldn't collect on that. Fine. I made two trips to the impound yard (90 minutes one way) and trailered my vehicles home.
My county DA finally make court arrangements to have him prosecuted in my county and she asked me if I wanted victim's compensation or if I wanted the guy to spend time in jail for his crime. Knowing full well what victim's compensation amounted to, I demanded that he spend time in jail for his offenses. It was well known that this guy had an accomplice because he didn't own a trailer to move my vehicles around, but he would not cooperate with authorities to tell them who had helped him out. My county DA decided that victim's compensation was the correct punishment. :cautious:(I forgot to say there was a lot more stolen items recovered in the thief's yard from my county. Remember there was over $100K worth of stuff recovered) I filled out a form how much it costs to recover my property and the thief and his lawyer agreed to that amount. The thief then promptly declared that he was disabled, couldn't work and there was no money for compensation.
So now my tax dollars are still paying for his ability to breath air.
On the bright side, I got my vehicles back.
 
This has went on long enough. The law makers don’t want to fix the problem. The cops can’t control it. In my state there is no vehicle inspections. Why the heck spend the money for round 2? Post converter 02 sensor..... meh
 
Take away the initiative to sell them, it should curb the issue..

..unless they just get hoarded to be installed on customer vehicles that need a cat replacement. This scenario seems unlikely to me.

If they cant get paid, maybe they would stop? (Though there may be a straw seller involved.)

Apparently, you can show up to a yard with two large shopping carts full of catalytic converters and metal that perhaps have jagged hollow pieces of metal (exhaust pipes) still bolted on and get paid, so.... maybe the motivation to steal them is still there. Up to and included had a truck that was worked on, parked outside the shop because big truck for one night, came back in the morning and the cat was cut out. We knew when it was time to move the truck.. THAT one was on camera. So dollars to donuts the car used for it was stolen as well....
 
Wonder if he was employed ?
in circus :LOL:
tattoo-guy-ok-fam-what-you-want-him-unemployment-tattoo-29717400.png
 
Back
Top