Catalytic Converter theft.....

[schro]

All,
We recently bought a Chevy Traverse, and since we didn't want / need three cars, we sold my beloved Acura. We are now a two SUV family, as we kept our Toyota 4Runner (which I love as well, just not as much).

Well, after seeing stories about how the economy is causing an increase in petty metal theft (copper from stoplights, elementary schools, our community signs, etc.), some a-hole sawed off my catalytic converter.   Congrats, they'll likely get $50 for it.

After the insurance deductible, it cost me $250 to replace, due to some additional damage this scumbag inflicted. 

To hopefully prevent future theft, I recently installed one of these.
http://catclamp.com/

It wasn't very difficult to install, just a little time underneath the car, and a sore back the next day.
Theft is on the rise. If you have a car that has an exposed catalytic converter, I'd suggest looking into one.

[KJTQ29]

The Xenon headlamps are also stolen more frequently in my area these days.  New ones retail for about $1,000, stolen ones go for about $150 according to the newspaper.  Someone tried to pry them off of our Infiniti, damaging both lights and the grill/bumper.  Fortunately insurance covered the bill.  We now back the car into parking spots so that the front faces out - makes it more obvious if someone's trying to pop the lights.

[schro]

Thieves are the scum of the earth.

[buddha]

This is nothing new. When I was a cop one of the reports I took once was from a guy from a pretty exclusive suburb north of Chicago but south of Waukegan. He had made quite a bit of money in business and decided to "give back" so he bought a 4 unit building on the south side of Waukegan and totally rehabbed the whole place, including plumbing. He called the cops to report that thieves had broken into the building and stolen all the new copper waterlines by chopping out the brand new drywall he had put in. Copper is always a hot item at the scrapyards.
A Darwin Awards story about stolen copper follows: Comm Ed used to have a fenced in yard down by the Lake Michigan lakefront where they stored huge spools of copper wire and the homeless guys would climb the fence and chop lengths of wire from the spools and burn off the insulation. Then they would take it to the scrap yard and sell it by weight. Comm Ed then found a building north of town to store wire. One of these guys gets the bright idea to break into one of the transformers down near the lakefront and steal the wire out of that. I get a call one morning to meet a Comm Ed serviceman on Market Street, near the lake, regarding an attempted theft. He takes me up in the cherry picker and on the platform under the trasformer, which had been pried open, was nothing but a scorched pair of boots. There was a large burn mark inside the transformer, also, which the service guy supposed was the spot the boot-owner had touched and made himself a conductor.

[aarrggh]

  O` They just needed a quick score so they could buy a carton of cigs .   

[D.A.L.U.I.]

Where was the car when these miscreants made their "five finger" discount purchase? 

In NO theft of copper plumbing pipe and air conditioning equipment and other metals was a serious problem for people fixing their homes after Katrina and it continues at a slower rate today--this is a nationwide issue, but little is done to police the scrap dealers who pay cash for pipe and other "trash" brought to their dealerships.  If they could effectively police and nail the buyers the sellers would go away, IMO.  But that's a policy that never seems to get much traction anywhere. 

[tomgallagher]

Where was the car when these miscreants made their "five finger" discount purchase? 

In NO theft of copper plumbing pipe and air conditioning equipment and other metals was a serious problem for people fixing their homes after Katrina and it continues at a slower rate today--this is a nationwide issue, but little is done to police the scrap dealers who pay cash for pipe and other "trash" brought to their dealerships.  If they could effectively police and nail the buyers the sellers would go away, IMO.  But that's a policy that never seems to get much traction anywhere. 

No traction is right. The scrap metal thieves are way down on the Law Enforcement priority list.

[schro]

My car was parked on the street at a BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) station in Oakland.

[xnewyawka]

My car was parked on the street at a BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) station in Oakland.

Must have been Raiders' fans.....

[Chromeo]

Nothing surprises me any more.  Probably some tweeker needing some dough for his/her next fix.  Anyway, sorry to hear about that.  Besides the theft, how are you liking the Traverse?  I'm thinking it must have taken the place of the Trail Blazer?  I have an 2005 Trail Blazer that I bought used in 2008, it had less than 21,000 miles on it.  For the most part it's been a nice ride.  I did have to put about $2400.00 into it last year to have the serpentine belt replaced and have a leak in the front differential fixed.  No I didn't get an extended warranty because I've had bad luck with them in the past, but now, I wish I would have.  Anyway, the shop I took my Trail Blazer in to have the work done told me that they had 7-8 other Trail Blazers with the same leak in the front differential.  I shot Chevy a nasty gram and had high hopes that they might compensate me, even a little bit, but got shot down in the end primarily because I didn't take it to one of their dealerships to have the work done.  Oh well, live and learn.  Hope the Traverse is good to you! 

[Tyler]

Being a plumbing contractor, my brother-in-law is having a huge issue with theft of piping.  He now has to inventory all of his piping each day and store it in a very secure spot after having thousands of dollars of copper piping stolen from the yard at his office.

[SlyCanuck]

Wow, Schro, that sucks!  I couldn't believe your post when I first read it.  In my wildest dreams I never imagined anyone stealing a catalytic converter!  Wow! Strange times, my friends, strange times!

[buddha]

Where was the car when these miscreants made their "five finger" discount purchase? 

In NO theft of copper plumbing pipe and air conditioning equipment and other metals was a serious problem for people fixing their homes after Katrina and it continues at a slower rate today--this is a nationwide issue, but little is done to police the scrap dealers who pay cash for pipe and other "trash" brought to their dealerships.  If they could effectively police and nail the buyers the sellers would go away, IMO.  But that's a policy that never seems to get much traction anywhere. 

No traction is right. The scrap metal thieves are way down on the Law Enforcement priority list.

That's because scrap metal cannot be identified. You can't prosecute the case unless the thieves are caught in the act.

[1GoZoom]

Someone went to steal mine and left a note calling me an A-hole.  I've been catless for nearly a year.  Swapped out headers and built a custom straight piped exhaust.  Sounds like a Nissan VQ37 370Z.  Yummy.

In seriousness, crimes like that are WAY up.  Just not around here because people are too busy stealing copper from substations and getting fried. 

[Daven]

They had a huge story on the local news about cat. Thefts. The thieves can get $&350-$400 per cat. They even had a "reformed thief" on the news that showed with a saws all he got one off the car in 7 Seconds!! 

At the end of the story they advised us all to get our vin numbers put on the converters, the scrap yards won't buy them then. I think the reason they get so much is they have platinum in them.  Sorry it happened to you, thank God for my garage.