Catalytic converter theft prevention

[Hickey]

This is a good idea.

Police try new program to prevent catalytic converter theft

With the help of an oil change company, drivers were able to get their catalytic converters painted and their VIN numbers carved into the metal.

abc13.com

I'm not too worried about my Jeep converters, as they are tucked up next to the motor. Not sure about my truck, but I know it has 3 different resonators that might get mistaken for converters.

 

[DAA]

Had the converter stolen out of my LX470 years ago. Muffler shop I took it to told me that someone had stolen them out of a dozen brand new trucks on a dealers lot not far away just a few days earlier.

- DAA

 

[Coco]

Its a good idea, I like that. IDK if the paint would be needed if you're grinding in the number, but may make it easier to spot if it was painted. Until it burns off anyway.

 

[rholbrook]

They paint them so the number shows up better, in the dark they may not see that it has been engraved. Makes sense to me. I had a friend get his stolen in the repair shops lot. $1,600 later, he is still trying to get his money out of the repair shop, not that its their fault but he is trying.

 

[boogie_4wheel]

Afew months ago a coworker has his cat get cut off of his pos Honda CRV in the Harbor Freight parking lot on 3470 State one afternoon. Walked in to grab something, came back out and he was ready for late night street racing.

I thought it was pretty ballsy to be doing that in the daylight but then there are a lot of people that have no desire to get involved when it isn't their problem.

 

[TRD270]

I have another solution, let’s actually punish people for a crime. Let’s try prosecuting them to the full extent of the law. Perhaps crime should have consequences vs social programs and coddling. If jail or prison, or hell actually convicting someone of something rather than pleaing it down to 1/8490472th of what they were charged with was a bad thing maybe people would start thinking twice about cutting a cat off in broad daylight.

Just my $.02

 

[mbryson]

I have another solution, let’s actually punish people for a crime. Let’s try prosecuting them to the full extent of the law. Perhaps crime should have consequences vs social programs and coddling. If jail or prison or hell actually convicting someone of something rather than pleaing it down to 1/8490472th of what they actually did was a bad thing maybe people would start thinking twice about cutting a cat off in broad daylight.

Just my $.02

Spoken like someone with experience for sure

 

[Herzog]

 

[Herzog]

People need to setup more stings to catch these idiots. Exploding paint bombs, gps tracker inside staged cat, etc. Thieves are the scum of the earth.

 

[Mouse]

With the costs of everything sky-rocketing, I think we can expect to see more of this kind of stuff

 

[TRD270]

People need to setup more stings to catch these idiots. Exploding paint bombs, gps tracker inside staged cat, etc. Thieves are the scum of the earth.

Doesn't matter how many stings you setup, if you don't have a DA that will prosecute both criminal and businesses accepting stolen goods it does NO GOOD. There is no punishment/consequence so why stop? Setup a sting, throw them in jail they're back out in a a matter of hours back at it again. When I was still the po-lice we spent three months trying to catch two idiots breaking into cars in the canyons. We caught them red handed. Had over 1000 charges against them. The lady criminal was out of jail before I made it back to the sub-station to write my report, I shit you not, the dude was in jail for 3 days. These two clowns ruined 100's of people lives for months. Did next to no jail time, and you think they are paying back any of the victims? HA. This is one of the many reasons I was done with law enforcement.

 

[N-Smooth]

But guys, they're not bad people... they were just not born into privilege like us.

It's that type of thinking that drives me nuts. There are definitely people out there that are making mistakes that need help but that shouldn't mean they can make others into victims and get away with it.

 

[TRD270]

The first time I read this I read it as hell as a possible sentence lol.

“I hereby sentence you to an afterlife in hell for the theft of catalytic converters”

And I first thought, “well, yeah, they probably do deserve that, but getting sentenced to hell doesn’t do anything for your reprimanding while here, alive on the terrestrial earth” 😂

I need to stop angry typing on my phone while walking through the airport, i'm not even clear what I said and I wrote it

 

[Herzog]

Doesn't matter how many stings you setup, if you don't have a DA that will prosecute both criminal and businesses accepting stolen goods it does NO GOOD. There is no punishment/consequence so why stop? Setup a sting, throw them in jail they're back out in a a matter of hours back at it again. When I was still the po-lice we spent three months trying to catch two idiots breaking into cars in the canyons. We caught them red handed. Had over 1000 charges against them. The lady criminal was out of jail before I made it back to the sub-station to write my report, I shit you not, the dude was in jail for 3 days. These two clowns ruined 100's of people lives for months. Did next to no jail time, and you think they are paying back any of the victims? HA. This is one of the many reasons I was done with law enforcement.

Sounds like SLC Valley has a Soros DA problem.

 

[Hickey]

People need to setup more stings to catch these idiots. Exploding paint bombs, gps tracker inside staged cat, etc. Thieves are the scum of the earth.

A catalytic converter filled with acid and wasps.

 

[spaggyroe]

Where do they go after they are stolen?
There's a money trail here that nobody is following.
Find out who has piles of paltinum, rhodium, palladium, etc... investigate them... and then fine the ever loving hell out of them for possession of stolen merchandise. The risks needs to outweigh the rewards.

 

[Coco]

There is a guy that comes to our shop every now and then and buys our old cats. I think we had 4-6 last time he was here, and one alone was $1200. He would look up on his phone what each was worth as far and the stamping on them, and throw out pricing each time. He loaded them in the back of his truck that was completely full of cats, and he takes them to recycling. I would guess that whole bed was worth 20k at least. He goes to pay us and pulls out a huge wad of cash.

 

[Coco]

No paper trail of legal purchasing from you? Seems almost as sketchy (from an outsiders view) as doing it the theft way.

If he isn’t asking for a receipt or anything from you guys how would he prove that they aren’t stolen? Or that 10% of his load isn’t stolen and the other 90% are legal.

Not saying at all that he’s stealing, I’m just saying he is asking for some potential drama.

I agree, IDK how he does it, or if the recyclers ask for proof on them, but I think they should. We are covered through our paper trail, but I agree he could run into problems for sure.