Whose Catalytic Converter got stolen story...

Okay, so I heard that the first generation of Tacoma was famous for having their catalytic converters stolen. If yours has been stolen before, share your story, your horror when you started you engine and it sounded like one of those bad-ass Harley Davidson hardcore bikes.

Let the story begin!

 

*catalytic converter fix your title maybe?

 

Great idea! Done.

 

This was one pissing experience. Very long story involving dropping Liberty Mutual as my insurer, installing custom cat skid plate and 4 years later replacing cat again as California Emission screwed up their smog database.
Frankly I'm still to pissed to write about it.

 

Got mine stolen off of a 97 about 9 years ago. They bolt in and the truck was high enough to crawl right under. Living near Anaheim and Ohio in Long Beach at the time.

 

Happened during the day while I was at work. Just finished working on something else on the truck so at first I thought I messed something else up. Till I looked underneath.
Can't remember the last time I was so pissed

 

My dad had it at my little brothers wrestling tournament. Luckily he shut if off right after started as they cut trans lines while stealing it and was leaking fluid like crazy

 

Well... I didn't know this was an issue. Any cheap ways to protect against it?

 

Weld the bolts to the pipes so the welds have to be grinded off to unbolt it..we had a dealership here people came and cut all the cats off with an electric saw all on a bunch of daewoos took the wheels too a few years ago

 

California will start subsidizing methamphetamine supplies for addicts, this should reduce their need to steal catalytics.

 

Garage kept and if needed use the help from Mr Smith & Mr Wesson

 

This is not as common as it used to be. All scrap yard require ID, fingerprint and address to mail checks too. If you walk in carrying a cat, you will be told to pound sand. The scrap yard will have a picture to give the cops by that time as well.

 

LOL, ive never seen an upstanding citizen working at a junkyard, let alone one that sells cats. 99% of the business is cash only. Those guys would sell their own mother for a quick buck.

 

Must be a location thing. Maybe your scrap yard are run a little looser than ours.

Not sure I can agree with your generalization of the people working at scrap yards. They may not be corporate CEO material, but they aren't stupid.

 

Illegal to sell a used cat.

 

OK, so?

 

Scrapyards dont sell them as its a substantial fine to do so and be caught.

 

Thats why scrapyards deal mostly in cash. Let me know if you want me to get you one.

 

I had mine stolen while I was at work 9+ years ago off my 1st gen 4Runner. I turned it on and something sounded a little funny... tall/lifted trucks with easy access are the preferred targets.

 

Well duh, there are still illegal operations out there.

The point is that you can't *legitimately* sell that cat you "found" to a scrap yard. Same with copper wire, among many other things. Hell, you can't sell a watch to a pawn shop without ID. This makes it much more difficult to walk in to a random shop and sell your stolen goods. And it's not like those shops that do operate illegally aren't known to law enforcement. They get popped, and a month later some other fly by night operation crops up. Rinse, repeat.

It leads to a *reduction* in crime, no one pretends it eliminates it.