Does it seem like catalytic converter theft is on the rise?

I've been seeing lots of posts about people getting cats stolen recently. Its annoying that someone wants to make 200$ at the expense of costing the victim 1200$ because they have to replace it. Is there a reason Toyota seem to be their favorite make to steal them off of?

 

It may be because they can just roll under, hack it off, and gone. Plenty of room to work.

 

I haven't really looked, but don't the skid plates cover the CC? Those skid plates aren't hard to take off, but they require a lot more effort than just sliding under and hacking off.

 

May be regional. Surprisingly, it's not an issue here, though when I lived in the midwest it was. Hell, a few years ago when scrap metal was more valuable probably half the vacant houses in town had been burgled, with copper pipe and wiring stolen and thousands of dollars of damage done to the structure in the course of removing the copper. One house caught fire after the thieves pulled pipe and just left the gas on. Trucks left parked at the park'n'ride had the converters sawzall'd off regularly. Maddening.

Incidentally, ain't no one getting $200 for a converter on the scrap market. Maybe $25. Which makes it even more maddening. Fucking tweakers and heroin fiends.

 

Its always been a problem with toyotas here in CA, especially trucks. Toyota uses platinum in theirs but the true problem is that recycle yards will just give anyone decent money for them no questions asked.

 

Oh yes. And not a new thing, either. 4 or 5 years ago, here in a Kansas city in the KC Metro area, there was a rash of catalytic converter thefts in parking lots of gyms. Very brazen and in broad daylight.

 

https://www.kiro7.com/news/trending...verters-300k-cash/DIM74DWPVZCZ7GPSKW765K7RHA/

 

Tweakers love scrap metal and wire here! I saw a guy who had turned an old bicycle into a wire stripping contraption. He had hundreds of feet stripped wire. Pretty genius actually, but destructive and illegal non the less. My brother had the sound system and cat stolen out of his pickup a couple months ago. Junkies will do anything to get their next fix.

 

Our tweakers here now are lazy. They'll steal it if it ain't bolted down but stripping wire, that's work, man.

 

Thank goodness this never happens in Canada.

 

Another reason why we removed all of ours to begin with.

 

Recently had the driverside cat stolen from my Tundra. Not only did the jackoff take the cat but when he ripped it out he damaged the pigtail harness to the O2 sensor. Total cost: $2600+ !!! The cat alone was $2100! Luckily my insurance covered it.

 

Damn that really sucks glad insurance covered it. Apparently the newer cars have more precious metals in their cat. My 97' 4runner wont be a great payoff because of what it is. Still annoying that some tweaker is willing to go to those lengths to get 200$ or less

 

Yeah, it really shows the impact of petty property crimes. The thief is desperate and only gets pennies of what something is worth. In a worse case scenario, a human life can even end up being sacrificed for a few bucks. It would make a lot more sense to deal with drug abuse as the medical condition that it is. Addicts with treatment can be productive citizens and will not be stealing cats off of vehicles in the middle of the day.

 

My 1999 tacoma's got stolen. They just pulled the 8 bolts and were on their way. Still cost $1200 from the dealer so I had to insurance claim it. After the new one was in I went to the hardware store and got a 6 foot long piece of 1/4 inch rebar and had a muffler shop bend it to fit the exhaust pipe and around the cat about 2-3 feet on each side where he then welded it to the pipe. I figured I wouldnt need to replace it so made it more permanent. That seemed to work. Noticed a couple years back two of the bolts were missing like someone started to steal it again then saw the "security device"

 

I know this isn't full proof. But it sure will slow them down and they want to be in and out in 60 seconds. I bought a skid plate and had these sides welded to make it impossible to get the converter out. It would take a long time to cut through 1/4 steal. So hoping they would just move on.

 

the last few weeks, have seen a spike in similar thefts in Memphis...someone tried to borrow mine off my '97, heard it..chased 'em..and put a bullet in their rear window, as they were fleeting...prices are high for 'em...and unless the places who 'purchase' these purloined items, quit buying them from these thiefs, it will continue ...

 

The price of the metal used is sky rocketing, creating a huge demand for "recycled" cats. No questions asked. Bookface market place even has clowns posting for buying them..

 

We have them posting wanting to buy all over FB marketplace in Knoxville. What’s even worse some douchebag posted a TikTok not too long ago about how to cut them off and harvest the platinum inside them to get more money at the scrap yard.

 

I totally missed this last time...

But I do have a plate that will fit the 1st gen tundra, and I think yours is a 2004+?

 

naw, in the states we just give them a shot of Narcan and send them on their way.

There is a thread floating around from someone in Canada looking to immobilize their runner because they are concerned about theft, so I don't think you folks north of us are immune to it.

 

Well, there are other reasons for cat theft now. Will they be a hot item at the dispensaries soon?
https://www.autoblog.com/amp/2021/09/28/kinshasa-congo-bombe-drug-car-catalytic-converters/

 

^that is a true WTF. On the bright side, the more EVs get market share, the better for us. I’m sure they’ll find a way to snort some batteries or rubber.

 

Well EVs and chip shortages in the short term means used ICE cars having more of the market share for awhile. CAT prices might go up.....

 

Whoever thought of this and the fact it needed to be cut down w something so it would get absorbed into the nasal passage was quite experienced in their sniffing forte.

 

Here ya go…

https://montgomerycountypolicereporter.com/and-the-dumbest-criminal-award-goes-to/

 

Being a criminal is hard work for low pay and high risk. If a criminal worked as hard at something honest, they’d be happy and rich. But that’s the thing, most criminals have learning and literacy disabilities and truly aren’t that smart. So trying to tell them that there’s a better way usually falls on deaf ears. Drugs are just a symptom of the problem used to dull the pain. And there’s a lot of pain to dull.

 

Catalytic converter theft is rampant where I live. One block alone where I live has 46 Priuses so the cops have been staking it out.

They say one of the best deterrents is to engrave your VIN number into the converter but if they melt it down for the metals I don't see that being very much of a deterrent.

The article I just read in SFGate also said putting metal there doesn't seem to matter because they can cut through it faster and faster these days. I thought maybe, because I'm broke anyway, I could go old school and collect a big bag of dog poo and throw it under the car where the catalytic converter is every night and then leave the house a few minutes early when I have to go I can just sweep it all back into the bag to put out again the next night.

I also wondered about putting a motion detector under the car or an electrified mat. That might make somebody scream and I can hit the siren on my Ring camera like I did last week when we caught two people breaking into our cars. Any other ideas?

 

Unfortunately I think CC theft is a low risk crime in California. First of all it does not require "Breaking and Entering" by the thief and a good defense attorney can probably get it reduced to a misdemeanor, even if a felony charge (depending on value of stolen items confiscated) has been implemented and the perp may not serve any time.

This link discusses the penalties by a law firm in CA. Unfortunately these law firms are making money defending these creeps.

Last Spring, Florida made it a felony with penalties of up to 4 years in prison, but it's still probably difficult to deter a would be thief.
If you lobby the environmentalists in CA, they might put pressure on law makers to raise it to a felony charge as well as
making a strong effort to go after the dealer rings is probably the best course of action in many areas.

The other aspect that people don't realize in all of this is, if you put some sort of physical deterrent under your car and the thief gets injured, you open yourself up to a potential law suit.

 

https://youtu.be/sVumcWucqAo