Catalytic converter theft deterrent options?

My co workers cat was stolen from his 02 Tundra and my truck (19 Sport) was parked next to his. I don’t know why they didn’t hit my truck or the other 3 cars parked on the side and of a building.

 

It's simple really, they chose the path of least resistance

 

I just got on Craigslist and looked this up. Mind is blown. Seems like it would be easy to slow this down since they are advertising?

 

I know it’s a stupid question but I’m a shitty criminal. So you crawl under a truck with what a battery power saw and cut it off? That would be so loud. How would they get away with that? Then you have your part so what then? Post an add and try to sell it back to the guy you stole it from? I mean there can’t really be a market for this can there?

 

I’ve read that older vehicles and hybrids have more of the precious metals in them, so they’re more of a target.

 

The solution, obviously, is to go set up a platinum mine in Greenland.

 

http://www.trucktrend.com/features/...tic-converter-theft-prevention-on-new-tacoma/

 

Park on a busy road with lots of traffic. I do. Thieves don’t want to steal cats on a busy road with lots of foot traffic and cars driving by every minute. The most common cats stolen are the Honda ultra low emission vehicles and Prius partial zero emission vehicles. I’m sure tacomas are gas guzzling not anywhere near low emission trucks so not worth as much to thieves.

 

FWIW, Cat Security seems to be building out additional vehicle options, and the 2nd Gen is now available. They have a form to sign up for an update when your vehicle is available.

 

Just in case you guys missed it, this happened a few days ago.

https://www.latimes.com/california/...ed-of-trying-to-steal-its-catalytic-converter

 

I drove past a wrecking yard in Hamilton, ON last week with a spray painted sign out front that said “Best Price for Cats”.



Are they paying the best price to the crackheads? Are they selling at the best price to the poor bastards that have had them sawzalled off?

Or, and I know this isn’t an official Friday thread, was this some kind of new business opportunity selling furry pets?!?

Then there is one other potential explanation which involves cutting deals for professional football players...

Oskee wee wee

 

Gotta love karma.

 

"It's a start"

 

Here in So.Cal. the scrap yards require ID to sell any scrap, however a quick search of CL shows one ad offering to buy 'scrap' Converters so someone is buying them.

As far as the noise goes, two weeks ago a guy in my city got caught stealing a Converter because someone heard a Sawzall running in the middle of the night and called the PD who caught him.

 

Are the CCs serialized? If it’s a high risk item for theft in places, it’d be worth noting that SN and/or taking a photo of them. Otherwise I guess you could put a mark on them with something high heat resistant, so there’s some traceability if it were stolen and LE later found a stash of them.

I know, odds of any of that working out in your favor are low.

 

They are not serialized (at least not that I've ever seen) however some people have etched their license plate number into them to help deter theft. Whether or not that works or not, I have no idea.

 

Yes, crawl underneath with a battery-powered Sawzall. Cut the exhaust, remove the cat, take it to a shady middleman who will give you $100 for it.
Middleman will take the cat apart and extract the precious metals contained inside, then sell those metals to..... somebody? metal dealer of some sort?

And eventually, those metals are used in the production of new cats, and the circle of life is complete.

But the driving force is that the market rate for those precious metals is super high recently.

 

I work for an insurance company and it seems the most popular cats stolen are the Prius and Sequoia.

 

Well then.