Maine's requiring VIN etching onto catalytic converters

That's why there needs to be some strict rules/laws for money hungry recyclers. If they get caught moving known stolen cats, they get penalized in order to make them think hard about enabling cat thieves.
The laws exist (see my post #56). It's kinda like strawbuyers and firearms. Plausible deniability will be used to help justify moving product.
 
Possession of stolen property. If someone is transporting drugs and the response by the driver is "I don't know why my spare tire is full of cocaine" do you think LEO's just let them go?

Possession of drugs is illegal, possession of catalytic converters is not, not sure how you drew that comparison.

So “ I don’t know” or “do not answer questions” is a very appropriate response if questioned by the police. Unless of course you want to incriminate yourself. Police cannot impede your travels or your business simply because you possess an item that if frequently stolen.
But what is being proposed by some here would give them exactly that. And for what? Some measly cat converters?
What’s next? Checkpoints to make sure your cat converter is marked? If not, off to jail you go? Where does this silliness stop?
 
Possession of drugs is illegal, possession of catalytic converters is not, not sure how you drew that comparison.

So “ I don’t know” or “do not answer questions” is a very appropriate response if questioned by the police. Unless of course you want to incriminate yourself. Police cannot impede your travels or your business simply because you possess an item that if frequently stolen.
But what is being proposed by some here would give them exactly that. And for what? Some measly cat converters?
What’s next? Checkpoints to make sure your cat converter is marked? If not, off to jail you go? Where does this silliness stop?
Yo don't think that possession of catalytic converters with serials ground off will be illegal? If drugs don't work for you lets try firearms with ground serials.
 
Yo don't think that possession of catalytic converters with serials ground off will be illegal? If drugs don't work for you lets try firearms with ground serials.
If that’s true then wow! Talk about overreach over something so inconsequential.
Let’s wait and see if it has any effect if any on the thefts. I hardly doubt it.
 
If that’s true then wow! Talk about overreach over something so inconsequential.
Let’s wait and see if it has any effect if any on the thefts. I hardly doubt it.
Ya I don't think it'll work because criminals will coalesce around each other in order to attempt to hide their operations. See my post #56.
 
Possession of drugs is illegal, possession of catalytic converters is not, not sure how you drew that comparison.
Possession of stolen catalytic converters is ... that's the scope of the discussion.
 
So “ I don’t know” or “do not answer questions” is a very appropriate response if questioned by the police. Unless of course you want to incriminate yourself. Police cannot impede your travels or your business simply because you possess an item that if frequently stolen.
So some dude gets pulled over with 20 cut-off cats in his trunk with half of them engraved with a vehicle VIN. If he says "I don't know anything about those cats" the cops just say "Ok, have a nice day" and let him go on his way without checking the situation out some more, lol.
 
So some dude gets pulled over with 20 cut-off cats in his trunk with half of them engraved with a vehicle VIN. If he says "I don't know anything about those cats" the cops just say "Ok, have a nice day" and let him go on his way without checking the situation out some more, lol.
Your idea of a bust must be from movies or something. It sure happens from time to time, mostly to some stupid small fry, but criminals and especially large operations, are caught though investigation and detective work. Not luck of the draw by pulling someone over a non-operating turn signal. Perhaps that is why you think this new law will somehow have an effect on this particular crime.
 
Timothy McVeigh was caught because he was driving a car that was missing a license plate.

Did that lead to a collapse of a major criminal ring or gang? Because catalytic converter theft is an organized crime. Capture of few small thieves though shear luck will not have any effect on these thefts.
 
Your idea of a bust must be from movies or something. It sure happens from time to time, mostly to some stupid small fry, but criminals and especially large operations, are caught though investigation and detective work. Not luck of the draw by pulling someone over a non-operating turn signal. Perhaps that is why you think this new law will somehow have an effect on this particular crime.
You're not even replying in context to my comment ... side tracking. Cops can certainly "impede your travels or your business" if there is probable cause to make them think a crime is being conducted. A trunk full of cut-off cats (some with VINs engraved in them) would/should certainly raise some suspicions to any police officer.
 
And how does that relate to passing a law that requires etching of VIN onto the catalytic converters? Did we need to pass some special law to capture this bomber and though shear luck?

You make the claim that police pulling over vehicles for failure to signal and such does not result in large busts. Your claim is specious at best and there are many examples showing otherwise.

EDIT: I'm reminded of the time that the cops pulled over a car speeding on I95 in Virginia and found a dead body in the trunk.
 
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