Catalytic converter thiefs

Looks like the Feds are finally cracking down. More power to them!

https://www.fox23.com/news/federal-...rXkPuO3OIZGMJaRXAtLTtRiRhzeweRgMMfnPtYCjIAyM8

 

Way past time they started cracking down on them, they just need to do it with ball peen hammers and starting at their toes and working slowly upwards.

 

Agree, way past time law enforcement woke up on this issue. It's been going on for years. Based on the story I read the crooks are very organized and nation wide. I hope they get them all.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/new...A13FWN0?cvid=c3c51b8c970b455e977ac3b70bc9d87b

 

Yes, this is getting pretty crazy. We even had a report about this near here where people park to day hike a segment of the Appalachian Trail. A big parking area right on US 40. Someone stole some cats in broad daylight on a sunny weekend day. They probably park in their car and case the area waiting for a preferred vehicle and for the occupants to head off to hike for a couple of hours. Easy peasy for the thieves. Need to be thrown in jail.

 

Getem all

 

If scrap yards would stop buying them, thefts would go down

 

That's the tough part. When the problem was ramping up, I first thought "why not pass a law to make it more difficult to sell the converters to yards." Then I happened to speak to a guy that worked in a scrapyard and he said they actually don't get many people coming in trying to sell converters. That's when I realized that passing local laws would do nothing because the converters were moving in the black market and not through local yards.

 

I have always been paranoid about that specific scenario because those parking areas for going on hikes or camps are usually easy to hit. Same for going boating in some places.

 

The people that actually steal them is one thing, the people that extract the expensive 3 metals, platinum, rhodium and palladium are another. Band the reselling of these components and problem solved.

 

Two or three days ago, here in Culver City, Ca. a group of three converter thieves were arrested at 8 am in the act of cutting out someone's catalyst. They were three blocks up the street from me and working in my direction. Tacomas and any high clearance vehicle are ripe targets as they're so easy to gain access to the converter, and there are at least half a dozen Tacomas in a six block stretch, but Prius's are getting hit as well. Whether these thieves are part of a larger ring is not known but what is known is that they are part of a big problem that only helps to drive our insurance rates up.

About a dozen years ago or so when I still had a pre Tacoma Toyota truck, and still living in Culver City, I went to start up in the morning only to find my catalyst gone and a really loud straight piped exhaust note blasting out. Thankfully back then the crooks apparently had not yet discovered the joys of battery powered cutoff tools and had actually unbolted the converter making it much easier to replace. Today that would not be the case, and my theory is that it's actually much easier with less chance of being caught for them to cut these out in broad daylight with the hustle and noise of daily construction in this city masking their actions. I mean, who is going to notice a cutoff saw with jackhammers half a block away, as opposed to doing the same thing at four in the morning and waking up the whole neighborhood.

So, crisis averted temporarily, but they'll be back, I'm sure.

 

Cat shields and different screw heads on it. Problem solved

 

So out of curiosity, I poked at DG's website (it's still up). They even have an app so the user (thief) can get an updated price/quote on catalytics>

https://dgcatalytic.com/



pic on their home page (note all the converters in the background in what LOOKS like the back of a truck):

 

People called me paranoid... but peace of mind is nice

 

They look nice and hopefully it causes thieves to move on to an easier target, but the thieves aren't unbolting anything, they're using cordless reciprocating saws and/or cutoff saws. Watch a couple of surveillance videos on youtube and you'll see they're only under the vehicles for a very brief time. Cut two of the expanded metal frames at the brackets, bend them down and make your two cuts on the exhaust. Those two fat bastards in the photo deserve to have someone like Marsellus Wallace get medieval on them. Yep, I despise thieves.

 

Fuckin right....the Gimp is just what they deserve.

 

*thieves*

“Thief’s” is a possessive referencing something the thief owns…like a battery-powered cut-off saw.

 

The owner before me had 2 sets if cats cut off the truck. It's a 2.7 4 cylinder so 4 cats. I welded a cage out of 1/2" rebar around the cats and it looks huge. My neighbor had his cats removed at 2 pm and they passed on mine.