Catalytic Converter Theft Ring Busted!

[Telekarster]

the deductible will be refunded and they'll pursue payment from the thieves.

That would be interesting to see the outcome of, would they offer up a trade in cats vs. $?

 

[stepvan]

A fellow down the street from me, and this is a pretty quiet neighborhood brought his work truck home with a big Whacky Packer compactor on a carrier on the front of it. During the night someone stole the Whacky Packer and put it in the trunk of a Toyota Corolla caught on a surveillance camera of the neighbors. Can you imagine going around to construction contractors, and asking if you wanna buy a compactor, and the Corrola dragging the ground from the weight of it?

Oh but it happens all too often

 

[getbent]

Just bust the slime bags who buy the catalytic converters

that worked well during the 'war on drugs'

 

[tery]

that worked well during the 'war on drugs'

Maybe we could legalize catalytic converters?

 

[Engine Swap]

Sad to see Guy Fieri mixed up in all of this.

 

[getbent]

Sad to see Guy Fieri mixed up in all of this.

I am thinking of coming up with a board game about this... pick the fences vs. the thieves.

 

[39martind18]

I hope the shields don't cause the cats to overheat?

Yeah, my cats prefer the air conditioning~

 

[Sax-son]

Awesome! Now they need to find that ring down in LA. They stole my daughter's catalytic converter from her Prius in a supposed supervised parking lot at work in broad daylight. They even left some of the tools underneath the car. It cost her $3000.00 to get it replaced ($1000.00 insurance deductible). She works hard at her job and can't really take that kind of financial hit. I hope they throw the book at these people (huge fines and jail time). I have absolutely no use for these kinds of people. PREDITORS ON THE PUBLIC!

 

[oregomike]

My neighbor salvages cat converters for a side job. When you consider that most cars have 2 of them and some fetch $1,000 each....it is not surprising that thieves are so bold.

The neighbor buys junk cars for $600 and salvages the converters for $400 - $1,000 for each, and still sells the car for scrap after.

There are just a couple of flaws to the task. One, they have to be factory converters as most of the after-markets don't contain much platinum at all and you will never know which is which until you cut them off and check for the stamped numbers. The second problem is being able to read said numbers. I have spent hours trying to read some of them and it isn't easy. If you can't read them, they are worthless, and you will not know until you cut them off. He gets burned about 30% of the time, but still pockets a couple of grand each month.

All you need is a car trailer, a list of which vehicles have the most expensive converters (Explorers and Lexus are good examples), and a sawzall. Not a bad way to make some money really.

My neighbor salvages cat converters for a side job. When you consider that most cars have 2 of them and some fetch $1,000 each....it is not surprising that thieves are so bold.

The neighbor buys junk cars for $600 and salvages the converters for $400 - $1,000 for each, and still sells the car for scrap after.

There are just a couple of flaws to the task. One, they have to be factory converters as most of the after-markets don't contain much platinum at all and you will never know which is which until you cut them off and check for the stamped numbers. The second problem is being able to read said numbers. I have spent hours trying to read some of them and it isn't easy. If you can't read them, they are worthless, and you will not know until you cut them off. He gets burned about 30% of the time, but still pockets a couple of grand each month.

All you need is a car trailer, a list of which vehicles have the most expensive converters (Explorers and Lexus are good examples), and a sawzall. Not a bad way to make some money really.

Considering there's 3-7 grams of platinum in the average catalytic converter, and platinum goes for about $1000 per oz (roughly 28gm per oz), you'd need at least 10 cats to get that kind of dough, and you'd have to process the metal yourself for 100% of that profit. My comment stands. That's too much damn work! But different strokes...

 

[Lou Tencodpees]

What would give me a warm and fuzzy feeling is seeing a video of thieves putting in the effort, whether its a catalytic converter heist or smash and grab looting, ending in an armed robbery of the thieves by other thieves.

 

[G.Rotten]

https://www.ktvu.com/news/san-jose-police-recover-1000-catalytic-converters-make-15-arrests

proof, it takes all kinds.

Super awesome the article shows people what tools they'll need and a detailed description of how to do it.

 

[Lost_N_Austin]

Heads-up to those who consider themselves vulnerable because of their work or home parking situations.

https://getcatsecurity.com/



We recently had a local CatCon thief die when the car he was under collapsed on him. May he rest in pieces.

Lost_N_Austin

Here is an informative video from a California News station

 

[Speedfish]

My son-in-law's truck broke down two weeks ago and he had to leave it on the side of the highway. He called the tow company and went on into work. It took the tow company company five hours to pick up his truck. During that time thieves stole his catalytic converter. I couldn't believe it, but I guess this is happening?!

 

[PCollen]

Apologistic? I said “property” not “poverty.” If I get into a discussion about poverty, it won’t be online, and certainly not on a guitar forum.

OOPS, my bad...sorry. I hadn't had my first cup of coffee yet and just misread that completely.

 

[rghill]

I was in SF yesterday for a play. Incredible numbers of unhoused in the streets in the rain.

Sometimes, in our town, we'll notice that someone did not pick up after their dog. What we saw yesterday on two occasions were people who didn't pick up after themselves.... kinda startling. They also have workers on many street corners helping keep the unhoused and often mentally ill organized so that folks going to plays or shopping or going to their houses remain un harassed.

weird times.

Last time I went to San Francisco was for a tech conference sometime in the mid 1990's. I remember one of my associates describing the street people as "aggressive panhandlers". I think that was a good description.

I work in a very upscale part of Scottsdale. More exotic cars per square mile than anywhere I have seen. But there are still folks on the corners asking for donations. At least they are generally polite.

 

[rghill]

Damn catholic converters keep knocking on my door. I just hide behind the blinds till they go away.

We get mostly LDS converters, but sometimes JW converters too!

 

[Sconnie]

"They range in age from 81 to 22."

That made me lol, it's the little things in life.

 

[Sconnie]

Oh man that "post" (it can't be called an article...) is riddled with hilariously bad grammar, I struggled to get through it.

 

[guitar_paul1]

Those weren't cut, the flanges are at both ends.

Good eye! Raises interesting questions.

 

[littlebadboy]

Execution.