Cat got hacked off...Advice please?

Yep, just moved to Davis in August.
Saturday night my cat got jacked. Woke up on Sunday to quite a meaty sounding taco.
Midas estimates about 400$ more or less depending on what family my 97 is in.
I have a couple of questions before I book with them though that y'all might be able to help with..
1.) Has this happened to you? If so, what was YOUR plan of action?
2.) Would it be cheaper to buy parts myself and have them installed, or to do all of it myself?(I have a friend with a full shop, and welder)
3.) What kind of sick jerk does this?
These and any other advice would be pretty helpful, as im not too savvy on our exhaust systems, or exhaust system in general.
Thanks!

 

You can't legally buy used cats in Cali, so forget about cheaper parts by in large,
You friend's shop could probably save you a few bones on the install charge.
And they do it for the precious metals inside the cat, that's what they recycle

 

Here in Az. this is happening all the time lately, mainly to tacomas.

 

at SDSU, 10 tacomas had their cats jacked in one day!

 

Yeah, they make probably around 100$ of the platinum and what nots. Costs me over 200$. Hope they know what their doing karma wise hah. I've always been weary of it happening, especially since my truck is 2.5 in off the ground. I was going to spend my money redoing suspension, guess its going to have to wait:/

 

Damnn, so many better ways to make a buck, I mean come on. Don't steal, it's one of the ten commandments lol.

 

fuckin assbags... ive got a $1000 deductible!

 

you can buy a cali cat online and have your buddy weld it up. will be cheaper in the long run. make sure its a cali cat and not the exact same looking federal cat (only run 60 bucks) as i was failed at the smog shop because i used a normal cat.

 

Yeah, me too, I have a perfect driving record, so i have it the cheapest possible hah! Insurance is no help. I filed a police report, hopefully they have some luck!!

 

This post had me very confused for a second. Poor cat haha.

But that sucks OP, I hope you can find one that isn't too expensive

 

I had one stolen off my 88 Toyota pickup in San Francisco. Sucks man. I ended up going with a magnaflow from orilleys. Was only ~$190. Much cheaper than any other option i found elsewhere. Not sure how much more it will be for a 97 taco. Weld it yourself and save some cash.

 

Check your local craigslist threads.

 

Your in Davis? What part? I live right next to the stadium...
Last year there was a string of cat thefts.. then they kind of stopped for a while. Sorry this happened man. Makes me worry about mine more now.
My brother had his stolen off his first gen earlier this year in the bay area, 700 buck deductible. It just sucks.
When you do get the new one, I would engrave your vin number into it so if they try to sell it hopefully the scrap metal place will see it. Last time the cops (at least to my knowledge) didn't have any leads on who was doing it.

Perhaps if you're interested we can get together and bring my buddy kevin in on this too (he's on TW as well) and I can take it into the Fram lab where I'm taking welding this quarter and weld some supports on it to make it harder to steal? I don't know how effective that might be.

For future protection I plan in getting a skid in there. If anyone wants to steal my cat they'll have to dismantle and take out a skid plate and then cut it out and i doubt they'll bother considering there are at least 3 other toyota trucks in my parking lot...

Sucks though... wish they would catch who's doing it. Stealing really really pisses me off.

 

when mine was taken out of my 89 4runner i filed the police report. the next day they found some guys border bound with a trunk of cats in town. i saw the report on the news and called the cops but they said they had no way to know which one was mine so i couldnt get it back. was sad. i told them just give me one that fits lol but no go. aftermarket is much cheaper then OEM

 

Sorry to hear about that man
I'm in Davis, too (I'm the Kevin mentioned in logcabinwc's post). Makes me worry about mine a little, too, but since I'm kinda thinking about getting a new one anyways it might just be an excuse...

I've never had much experience with exhaust or welding strength, but if you need/want an extra set of hands I'd be happy to help!

And yeah, stealing sucks, especially when it comes to transportation things like bikes and trucks

 

It happened on my 98 in Phoenix. The guy that stole it unbolted it and saved me some grief.

I went to BAP imports and installed it myself .

The kind of person that does this is a POS that may never know that I'm going to break his arm If I ever find someone under my truck again . Oh I had an alarm it never went off.

Good luck- you're not alone.

Az

 

Thats actually pretty smart and funny. Get all your Taco/Toyo buddies and have a welding party. Weld those things to the frame with solid stainless rods or plate supports very inconspicuously. Make them get under there, hack through everything and when it doesnt drop out they'll spend longer under there trying to figure it out and maybe get a nut shot from a guy that catches them. Serve those asshats right.
Fucking thieves!!

 

Probably end up buying back his original cat that way. Besides the fact that in Cali you are breaking the law buying used cats.

 

Cat clamp.com has a nifty device to prevent theft. Not sure how good it is though. Better than nothing I guess.

 

i was on a photoshoot once and had my truck parked a block away from the set with 3 other tacomas parked behind me by chance...

i went out to my truck to swap out lights, and walked up on two guys cutting the cat off the tacoma behind me... one guy was about to make his way to my truck when i chirped the alarm...

made eye contact with him and reached for the box cutters i keep in a holster on my belt, and walked straight at him without saying a word... he had some kind of cordless sawzall tool in his hand... he yelled at his partner and they ran off with catalytics in hands...

i guess the whole time, the owner of the truck behind me had seen it go down and had already called the cops, cuz they caught the guys a few blocks over walking down the street with the catalytics in a shopping cart... apparently, they left their car parked a few cars down from our trucks...

this was back in 2009 and the cops told us that this had been going on for a while...