Theft of catalytic converter or whatever is not

[recycled sixtie]

bolted down outside your house. About a month ago the neighbor to the right of us goes to start his Hyundai suv in the morning. It sounds like a tractor. He checks underneath and the cat has been stolen. Only a week before they had a security system installed.

They have three vehicles and one is parked in the two car garage. The garage is half filled with junk so only one vehicle is parked in there. So during the wee hours of the morning the cat theft must have happened then. My Blink camera is pointed towards our front sidewalk and does not cover neighbor activity. Apparently the perp damaged the frame of the Hyundai removing the cat. The Hyundai was towed away to be "fixed". It now sits in their driveway parked and is not driven at all then presumably a write off.

I saw on facebook in the UK an old mini had been stolen from a driveway. The owner apparently was away on holiday. Their neighbor apparently watched it happen.

I don't get it. If you have something of value then put it in a garage or underground parking. People like to store junk in their garage and park a valuable car outside.

[GH85Carrera]

We see it all the time when we go for a walk in the neighborhood to the west of us. 50K cars parked outside and a garage with old spider infested junk worth maybe 200 bucks. I simply don't understand, but I am fan on common sense which of course is very uncommon.

Our cars are NEVER left outside. They are inside the garage whenever we are home, except if I am washing one of them. I wash them right in the parking area of my driveway, dry them off, go for a short drive and park them in the garage, and look for drips of water to dry off.

[ckelly78z]

I had the OEM cat stolen from my 1996 F150 (worth maybe $2000) last week while we were gone camping. I don't know if someone had been casing our place for when we weren't there, or they just got lucky. The truck was sitting 20' from the front door.

These unemployed idiots are doing anything possible to get their next crack hit, or value meal from McDees, and are probably the same ones who throw their trash on my rural property as they drive by.

[mattdavis11]

If the thieves want the cat, they are going to get it. I work in Austin Texas periodically, catalytic converter theft was rampant a few months ago, not sure about now.

I sell aftermarket catalytic converters and have heard stories from the shops who I sell to. They have had customers who simply went to the store, come back out, bab bab, bab, cat is gone. One prius owner had likely been followed home, she parked the car in her garage at an apartment complex, it was gone in the morning.

One small used car dealer had 16 stolen in one night from his lot. Look at the prices of platinum, palladium, and rhodium, and you'll see why they are being cut off left and right.

Not much you can do if they want it. Putting a cage around it might make it harder to steal.

[Norm K]

There has to be a relatively limited number of places that pay cash for catalytic converters.

Perhaps a little pressure on these enterprises is in order.

_

[GH85Carrera]

With a battery operated saw like they use, few cages stand any chance. It might slow the thief down 30 or 40 seconds. They sure don’t care if they have to cut the frame off to get to the cat.

[fastfredracing]

I just sold 2 cats on Friday . There is always a good deal of back and forth between us about the price, I have known him for 20 years, and we jack each other around a lot .
He tells me they are worth $200.....each., It was like I hit the lottery. Prices are really up . They would have been about 75 each last season
Strong incentive to sell catalytic jobs ! I make more money scrapping the cat, then I did off the initial job
They just built 200 some new homes on our road. It is exactly like you said. Garages are full of junk, and the cars are sitting outside . Nearly every one of them . Americans sure like to have large hoards of useless stuff
There are out of state buyers advertising for cats all the time, It would be no problem to fence a bunch of stolen cats if you had to .

[biosurfer1]

What I can never get over is how many stories are on Next Door with the same "My car was broken into sitting in my driveway and they took my laptop, wallet, purse, backpack, 4 gold bricks and my stack of $100 bills...I dont understand why this keeps happening?!?!?"

[craigster59]

A buddy is working in Atlanta and had 2 cats stolen off of his truck last week. I guess it's really becoming a problem out there.

Here in SoCal we've had rules in place for awhile where you had to show ID and sign a manifest at scrap yards to recycle cats. The LA Sheriff's even have events where they will etch your VIN onto your cats. Not sure if people are recycling them or selling them as used parts.

[recycled sixtie]

With the price of cats the car manufacturer could tie the cat to the anti theft system. Having said that there is no incentive for the manufacturer to do so but possibly the car owner would like that option?

[Shaun @ Tru6]

There's a good reason cats aren't stolen out of 955/957 Cayennes. I pity anyone who tries.

[Scott Douglas]

Are you complaining that it's a tough job, Shaun?

[Shaun @ Tru6]

I think book time is 10 hours for each one.

[Scott Douglas]

So it (they) has (have) built-in theft protection, from the factory.

[fastfredracing]

Originally Posted by Shaun @ Tru6

I think book time is 10 hours for each one.

Sawzalling it out with no worries about a clean installation would cut that book time down quite a bit !

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

With a battery operated saw like they use, few cages stand any chance. It might slow the thief down 30 or 40 seconds. They sure don’t care if they have to cut the frame off to get to the cat.

Yeah but have you ever tried to cut a cable? Sure, a battery cut off saw does it fairly quickly but they make a lot of noise. Recip saws can be slowed down so they are quiet(er). Anyway you look at it, the more they have to cut, the longer it takes.

And some thieves might not care. You go out there during the event and you're likely to be staring at a gun. Whatever you might be doing outside anyway because you are losing precious time on a 911 call (as if the police give a crap).

I've never heard about an arrest for cat theft yet. Here anyway.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Originally Posted by fastfredracing

Sawzalling it out with no worries about a clean installation would cut that book time down quite a bit !

you might be able do that on driver side Fred but passenger is really tight.

[SiberianDVM]

Maybe that's what happened to the 350Z three houses down. He parks it on the street even though he has a driveway. Normally, he leaves out of the 'hood about 7AM and I barely hear it although it sounds sporty.

Two weeks ago it sounded like straight pipes, and I'd be surprised if he didn't get pulled over. Louder than any of my track cars. Then last week I didn't hear it at all. This morning, back to normal. I guess it took a week to get the part and get it fixed. I hate that my neighborhood may be that crappy.

[stevej37]

Have 4 cars here....only one has a cat...and I'm sure they won't target that one.

[porsche930dude]

They dont use a sawzall these pipe cutters are silent. They wont get my cats I already removed them myself