cat converter thefts..

[v8 4wd]

saw this on the news this morning and thought id share....

Concord PD and Toyota Work to Fight Catalytic Converter Thefts - Concord, CA Patch


free for 4runner owners living in concord....

 

[TOY2G]

perhaps this link needs to be sent to all Toyota dealers

 

[techmen17]

Yea this is a huge problem here as well, our shop gets about a dozen a week!

 

[Uneek]

Fantastic for folks who live in Concord, but it'll push them outside of that area and into neighboring cities. This program needs to happen nationwide.

On the other hand, just as we have good Samaritan laws, we need to have wiggle room for vigilante justice.

 

[inscarguy]

this happened recently to the toyota dealer around the corner. 18 cats were stolen.

 

[DC runner]

See, I tend to disagree. I don't actually see this as stopping anyway. 1. any serial number will be ripped or ground off. 2. Let us be honest, if I am a junk yard, and someone rolls up with 15 cats.. I know what happened. I just choose to look the other way.

This is one of those cases of "trying" to make people feel safe. Won't stop anything.

If you really wanted to make it effective, go after the root source. Go after auto junk yards or other metal buyers. It is illegal to buy stolen property, or even property a reasonable person would suspect was illegal.

So, increase the fines and go make some big news busts. Scare the **** out of the yards to stop buying truck loads of cats from people in ****ty vans. Come on.. you can tell whats legit or not.

 

[Jerrydog]

I've considered marking my cats with some metal stamps I have, just a few letters like my initials punched into the case and a picture of the punch marks makes them identifiable so when you call the police you can give them the info and you can also give that info to the scrap yards. If they turn up or cats that have fresh grind marks in that area turn up its an obvious prosecutable theft.

 

[Uneek]

I don't know what precautions are taken for the cat buyers.

I know some folks in the construction trade that recycle demo'ed materials. When they take in scrap metal to the recyclers, their driver's license and vehicle license plate information is recorded. Then they retain what's sold to them for three days in the event the authorities need to investigate.

While this is a step forward, I see a few ways it can be improved. Holding onto bought back pile for three days isn't enough time for authorities to investigate. What they should do is take a picture of what's sold with the seller and their vehicle next to it.

 

[4RunnerFan]

The article mentioned engraving I'd numbers on the cat converter and installing hardware to prevent thefts. Any idea what the hardware is that they're talking about?

 

[DC runner]

Yea. I bet it is a tag that is tapped to the cat. Whether you stamp, tag or engrave a number on them... anyone with a dremel tool can remove it. This is a PR stunt to make people feel better.

 

[Uneek]

If I were to take a guess, they're probably changing out the bolts from regular to something like a Torx, etc. Even if the cat is welded, thieves will just take a sawzall to it. That's how those #$#@%#E$ ripped off the cat on my beater and another relative's. On my relative's Toyota p/u, they were able to unbolted it.

I highly doubt Toyota will put in that cat cage thing with cables that wrap the cat.

Catalytic Converter Theft Deterrence Lock