The law should shut down fancy metal business who buy these. They should use your drivers licenses & take your picture with the goods you have, when they pay you.
Indeed. Shooting them should not be illegal. BUT - yes, they *should* go to the manufacturers and request they make adjustments to their designs to make stealing these devices much, MUCH more difficult. Or install an RFID within the cat that has it's serial number (like the kind you can insert under a pet's skin). Run the serial number against a database to see if it's flagged as stolen... Give the thief 1 day in jail for every dollar amount of the replacement part, including labor.
@@derrickwashington1713 "Common sense" would be if all cars were electric by now. But that can't happen in a country that is ruled by Wall St & Big Oil Companies.
@@jamesbondjr1041 Ok then once they've collected a few dozen they sell them direct to the smelter in China. Good luck getting an international smelter to comply with US law, lol.
I loved that story where one of these thieves died underneath the car he was stealing from because the scissor jack collapsed. It was such a treat to hear, I hope more converter thieves get crushed by the cars they’re stealing from
Listen people, if you get your cat stolen, don't stop driving it. Drive it, and if the cops give you a ticketfor being loud, go to court. We need change.
The problem comes when you need to do emissions because what kind of happen is you can lose your license for driving a car that doesn’t pass emissions (after a period of time) They will try to force you to get it fixed
etching your VIN on your Cat is just to make you feel better. California law makes it illegal to install any used cat on any vehicle, meaning once that cat come off your vehicle, you're S.O.L.
It's illegal nationwide for junk yards to sell used catalytic converters. Installing them, IDK. The people who steal them aren't installing them often. Most of the time they're selling them to recycling centers. This needs to be done because junk yards sell cats to recycling centers too.
This is not a California thing, this is a U.S. A. thing; every city and town in this country has a "recycling center" that knowingly and willingly accepts stolen scrap, and has always done so. Same for almost all pawn shops in the entire country. I'm over 50 years old, and it has been this way since long before I was born. Go after the big criminals, and the small criminals will have nowhere to fence their stolen merch.
The thing is catalytic converters (cats) need to be recycled. Junk yards can't sell them as used and they have valuable rare earth metals inside so it makes no sense to throw them in the trash. Recycling centers accept tons from cars from scrap yards. Not to mention people (especially hot rodders) remove them on their cars and take them in for scrap. They either run no cats because their cars are track only or they don't have emissions. If they do have emissions, most places let them run "high flow" cats. If I was a cat thief all you have to do is go to several car/hot rod forums and you will find a guy advertising buying cats and will even give you a shipping label to send them to him. Far, far more cats that end up recycled are done by legit sources than by thieves. And if you watched the video you'd see often the cats are so valuable they end up across state or even international lines. How are you going to stop smelters outside the US from buying them? lol.
The law should shut down fancy metal business who buy these. They should use your drivers licenses & take your picture with the goods you have, when they pay you.
@@jamesbondjr1041 Good luck getting that passed at the federal level. They'll just take them out of state if you make that a state law. And hell even if they did make it a federal law they'll just ship them out of the country lol.
Just another push towards electric vehicles. I wouldn’t be surprised if these thieves were hired to do this. This world is so backwards it’s sickening.
He got CAT stolen 3 times? Damn, I would just keep on driving with no CAT unless all these people go to jail. I work for my future not replacing a new CAT -_-
I live just outside of DC & every day I see ads on FB & CL for people buying cats "no questions asked". If it was harder to turn the cats into cash, the theft rate would drop fast. There is always some low life willing to break the law for a few bucks. The thief might get a few hundred for most converters but it costs the car owner thousands to replace.
*Manufacturers* should be held accountable, how much more will it cost to put a damn shield under the cars they make? I would pay a $50 extra fee to have it added on!
To solve this problem all California has to do is allow aftermarket Cats to be installed on vehicles.(which is already the law for 48 states) Therefore instead of $3000 for OEM cats from the car manufacturer you can get one from a third party for $300-$500.
We had our car totaled out because of its cat getting stolen. Car was low mileage, but insurance couldn't do anything since CA requires OEM. Bet that car is being sold in a different state with a 300 dollar cat for huge profits.
Just install a security plate. It looks like a skid plate. Thieves will need extra tools and it may deter or at least make it harder to get to your catalytic converter.
They need to set up a Hot Dumby Priuses with cameras around them to start catching these criminals. It also appears that there's a huge fail with state rules for scrapyards
A thief will grind away any etched numbers in 10 seconds flat and not alter the black market value of the part at all. ETCHING/ENGRAVING YOUR VIN IS A COMPLETE AND TOTAL WASTE OF EVERYONE'S TIME. Valuable time that could be used to fight this crime for real. You are fooling yourself if you think engraving a VIN will deter a thief.
You could set up a quick disconnect with the Catalytic converter...When you dont' need to smog, pop in a reg. muffler....In two years, swap out with the converty..Even if you did this every other year for ten years, and had a mech do it, it would be way cheaper if you don't have insurance...
They should just install a security plate. It looks like skid plate. It will take longer for thieves to cut out and they would have to jack up up more than one point on a vehicle. If they see that security plate they may be deterred as they are just opportunistic criminals looking for an easy crime.
You have to be joking? Your engine will throw codes and put you in limp mode and run like crap...you have 02 sensors that need to be plugged into the Catalytic converter. Unless you spend a couple grand getting a tune.
@@trumpisaconfirmedcuck5840 yeah right all of a sudden hundreds of people are showing up with Cat converters. The buyers are not stupid they know that s*** is stolen.
@@caravanaband6211 It's going to be a small number of thieves compared to junk yards. Thieves will look more like junk yard sellers because they're hauling them in by the truck or van load. It's so profitable you could take them out of state or out of the country even.
This is an easy fix, really. Make federal laws requiring OEM parts for exhaust systems nationwide and make the recycling industry pick up the tab for the thefts. They will in turn figure out a way to stop buying stolen ones real quick and the illegal aftermarket for them will dry up shortly thereafter.
They will just cannibalize the precious metals. I don't know how many of these are actually being used for repurposed cat converters in cars anyways. It's not as if the process to get these materials is some kind of magic known only by the recycling industry.
@@captinbeyond Every time a real solution is proposed, those that don’t like it try to make the solution a political issue. Have you ever seen a politician from either side of the isle try to solve a problem without money involved? 🤣
@@jimk8520 Yes, I have seen politician enact solutions that did not spend money. Just this summer, my state rep's in Texas passed laws to force liberal judges in liberal cities like Houston /Dallas/San Antonio to stop letting criminals back out on the street with no bond when they were charged with serious crimes. No money needed, and no taxes raised. They also passed laws governing how to vote by mail in ballot to stop democrats from stealing Texas like Stacy Abrahams did in Georgia and again, didn't cost a dime. Only one party believes that money is the solution to every problem and that is democrats.
Believe it or not, the solution is simple - but it starts at manufacture. Cars have a VIN, airplane parts are all serialized. Why not cats? Know your serial # and when it’s stolen, a recycler would have to clear the cat as not hot through a database and flush out it as ripped. With regulation, this can work.
Just checked a vehicle parts eShop here in Ghana. They have 75 catalytic converters available, all look like they've been cut off. Someone's buying them for export.
Well the idea about making those selling these to scrap dealers put the VIN number on them would force some clarity into it where we could trace the stolen ones to the thieves. The scrap dealers already photo their drivers license and ID's
@@captinbeyond Putting VIN numbers on yet another part will increase the cost of production and ultimately mean the cars will cost more. Why should I have to pay more for a car?
@@mrwonk requiring a scrap dealer to put the vin number on the stolen converters he buys from the car thief will NOT cause the price of a new or used car to go up. I'm not talking about putting them on new cars from the factory, just make the scrap dealer and thief do it so we can see if those cat's are stolen. Make the scrap dealer submit his list of vin/cats to the local government each month and they can compare that to the data base of stolen cats. Just trying to make it harder to sell the stolen cats
@@captinbeyond Catalytic converters don't currently have vin numbers on them. hey can't record numbers that don't exist. Scrap dealers know most of them are stolen, they are knowingly buying stolen property through willful ignorance. Arrest the scrap dealers, arrest the criminals whey they are caught and stop letting them back out onto the streets.
Best shopping if you're on a budget or just simply want to use your own money for drugs and alcohol. Vote Democrat for the best looting opportunities...
take the stupid things off the cars the only reason car companies have to put them on is because of tree-hugger laws. if yours does get stolen just have a muffler shop weld you a straight pipe.
Etching a VIN on the cat won't slow thieves down at all... it'll just take them about 2 minutes to grind it off. It also affects how well the housing disperses the heat buildup, creating weak points that become hotter. You can install prevention devices, such as cages, but I've no idea how well those actually work.
This is all over the country, so Federal government needs to get involved. Laws could be changed so vin numbers are stamped on all catalytic converters.
Ok if VIINs are stamped on the cats... then what? Unless you catch them in the act like now or hauling a van full of cats (also like now) what will that do? They'll still be taken to a recycling center and sold. BTW legit junk yards sell them to recycling centers too.
@@raybod1775 You get a lot more bang for the buck shipping a 1000 4 pound cats than a 4000 pound car you silly goose. And if you watched the video, it does show them being shipped across state lines and internationally: th-cam.com/video/Xp7vXM110NQ/w-d-xo.html
When you replace the converter don't use an oem one. Use an aftermarket one as they aren't worth anything in scrap value. The thieves know which ones are aftermarket or OEM. If they see an aftermarket unit they'll move on.
I think you aren’t allowed to put an aftermarket part in any part of the exhaust system in California, your car will not pass the emissions inspection. (Don’t ask me where’s the logic in that, this is California)
@@luiskp7173 yea you can. It was adjusted recently. I have an 04 Honda Accord and had mine stolen. So I’ve been looking into fixing it myself and you can use an aftermarket cat. It just needs to be CARB complaint and once you install it, you have to take pictures of it and send them to the referee program where you set up on appointment to have them clear your cat for smog.
They want clean air and conduct vehicle emissions but can't stop the theft. So when does it get stupid enough to the point when you can not do emissions due to less customers with less cats
The obvious solution is to let people install relatively cheap aftermarket cats if theirs are stolen or stop working. I grew up in California (my mom still lives there). Her car has a clogged cat and I tried to look up some for her to buy cheaper than her mechanic quoted her and nope! They cost 4x as much. Non-California cats were relatively cheap. And mandate insurance covers full cost, no deductible replacement of cats. It's so expensive for my mom though that she just bought a new(er) car and is going to send hers to us since it's a little SUV and we could use a spare vehicle, especially one with transport capabilities. Guess what I'm going to do because there are no emissions here? Saw the cat off, sell it, and get an exhaust shop to install a pipe in its place.
I hoarded catalytic converters for a decade from the cars that I scrapped out or otherwise replaced a faulty catalyst on. I cashed them in last summer and got $800. I should not be punished for doing this.
Then charge everyone in the system with the crime . Then you’ll eventually get the crumbs at the top & bottom . It’s an eye for an eye today as they would cancel or bash anyone against them otherwise . They all know where it’s coming from so they’re equally at fault for this crime against society and it’s only making our insurance costs go up due to this greed . This way we weed out the lowlifes actually stealing them off our cars . Stop them there before society goes vigilante on them leaving bodies .
Etching an ID number on the outside of the cat. conv. housing is a waste of time. It will take any thief who sees such a marking, 5 seconds with a grinder to remove such a thing.
It's actually Platinum, palladium, and Rhodium that the thieves are stealing your catalytic converter for.. Rhodium went to $30,000 per Troy oz this year.
Go after the scrap yards for taking them. The state should install cameras in the scrap yards and scan every one they bring in. If not lock them up for 10 thatll fix it quick.
laws need to be tougher on these criminals. going to the manufactures is stupid.
The law should shut down fancy metal business who buy these. They should use your drivers licenses & take your picture with the goods you have, when they pay you.
Dude--Thank You!! Like they say, "Common sense is not common!"
Indeed. Shooting them should not be illegal.
BUT - yes, they *should* go to the manufacturers and request they make adjustments to their designs to make stealing these devices much, MUCH more difficult. Or install an RFID within the cat that has it's serial number (like the kind you can insert under a pet's skin). Run the serial number against a database to see if it's flagged as stolen...
Give the thief 1 day in jail for every dollar amount of the replacement part, including labor.
@@derrickwashington1713 "Common sense" would be if all cars were electric by now.
But that can't happen in a country that is ruled by Wall St & Big Oil Companies.
@@jamesbondjr1041 Ok then once they've collected a few dozen they sell them direct to the smelter in China.
Good luck getting an international smelter to comply with US law, lol.
There should be serious punishment for trade in stolen goods. But police usually do not consider thefts as serious crimes.
Thieves?? How dare you call them that!
They are aspiring Astronauts looking for work and bread.
Give us the right to protect our property.
They tried stealing mine. Called the neighbors and we flanked the thieves at gunpoint and tied them up. Cops came and collected the trash.
Better have gotten some good hits in before the cops showed up.
I loved that story where one of these thieves died underneath the car he was stealing from because the scissor jack collapsed. It was such a treat to hear, I hope more converter thieves get crushed by the cars they’re stealing from
That DA needs to be in jail. He loves criminals
What a worthless SOS that offers absolutely nothing. He's the classic liberal politician who is clueless on fixing anything.
Listen people, if you get your cat stolen, don't stop driving it. Drive it, and if the cops give you a ticketfor being loud, go to court. We need change.
The problem comes when you need to do emissions because what kind of happen is you can lose your license for driving a car that doesn’t pass emissions (after a period of time) They will try to force you to get it fixed
Sure, and enjoy the carbon monoxide seeping into your car. Dumb advice that can kill people.
etching your VIN on your Cat is just to make you feel better. California law makes it illegal to install any used cat on any vehicle, meaning once that cat come off your vehicle, you're S.O.L.
That is racism. Nothing is illegal, they are just undocumented
It's illegal nationwide for junk yards to sell used catalytic converters. Installing them, IDK.
The people who steal them aren't installing them often. Most of the time they're selling them to recycling centers. This needs to be done because junk yards sell cats to recycling centers too.
This is not a California thing, this is a U.S. A. thing; every city and town in this country has a "recycling center" that knowingly and willingly accepts stolen scrap, and has always done so. Same for almost all pawn shops in the entire country. I'm over 50 years old, and it has been this way since long before I was born. Go after the big criminals, and the small criminals will have nowhere to fence their stolen merch.
The thing is catalytic converters (cats) need to be recycled. Junk yards can't sell them as used and they have valuable rare earth metals inside so it makes no sense to throw them in the trash. Recycling centers accept tons from cars from scrap yards. Not to mention people (especially hot rodders) remove them on their cars and take them in for scrap. They either run no cats because their cars are track only or they don't have emissions. If they do have emissions, most places let them run "high flow" cats.
If I was a cat thief all you have to do is go to several car/hot rod forums and you will find a guy advertising buying cats and will even give you a shipping label to send them to him.
Far, far more cats that end up recycled are done by legit sources than by thieves.
And if you watched the video you'd see often the cats are so valuable they end up across state or even international lines. How are you going to stop smelters outside the US from buying them? lol.
The law should shut down fancy metal business who buy these. They should use your drivers licenses & take your picture with the goods you have, when they pay you.
@@jamesbondjr1041 Good luck getting that passed at the federal level.
They'll just take them out of state if you make that a state law.
And hell even if they did make it a federal law they'll just ship them out of the country lol.
@@jamesbondjr1041 what do laws matter. We have open borders in mexico. And the canada border. Yeah thats a joke.
DONT DEFEND GARBAGE CALIFORNIA.
We would sure hate for the DA to do his job and prosecute the offenders...
yeah, he would be a racist
I was confused about his response. Re-engineering the design was a ridiculous thing to say. They don't even pretend to care
Why does automakers have responsibilities of stopping the criminals. Does cop become mechanic when I break down?
Just another push towards electric vehicles. I wouldn’t be surprised if these thieves were hired to do this. This world is so backwards it’s sickening.
Exactly 💯
He got CAT stolen 3 times? Damn, I would just keep on driving with no CAT unless all these people go to jail. I work for my future not replacing a new CAT -_-
Yeah you could just weld in a straight pipe. Then make sure you get it fixed before your next 2 year smog is due.
Newsom has to be behind this.
Announcing it makes more than selling drugs is like recruiting new thieves
I live just outside of DC & every day I see ads on FB & CL for people buying cats "no questions asked". If it was harder to turn the cats into cash, the theft rate would drop fast. There is always some low life willing to break the law for a few bucks. The thief might get a few hundred for most converters but it costs the car owner thousands to replace.
*Manufacturers* should be held accountable, how much more will it cost to put a damn shield under the cars they make? I would pay a $50 extra fee to have it added on!
You are seriously part of the problem in this country. Manufacturers are not the problem, the thieves that are more crooked than a dog's hind leg are.
To solve this problem all California has to do is allow aftermarket Cats to be installed on vehicles.(which is already the law for 48 states) Therefore instead of $3000 for OEM cats from the car manufacturer you can get one from a third party for $300-$500.
That would make too much sense. This is CA we're talking about.
California politicians always want a piece on everything. Look at the gas price. They still have high tax on it.
How does that solve the theft problem? That makes it cheaper to replace but the thieves won't be deterred.
I hadn’t realized that CA required only OEM exhaust parts. That does make a huge difference in how shitty that’s be to have one stolen. Holy shit
We had our car totaled out because of its cat getting stolen. Car was low mileage, but insurance couldn't do anything since CA requires OEM. Bet that car is being sold in a different state with a 300 dollar cat for huge profits.
Just install a security plate. It looks like a skid plate. Thieves will need extra tools and it may deter or at least make it harder to get to your catalytic converter.
“We can’t arrest our way out of it”. No one’s asking you to. Just do your job.
They need to set up a Hot Dumby Priuses with cameras around them to start catching these criminals. It also appears that there's a huge fail with state rules for scrapyards
Probably gonna start doing this myself. We know too damn well the police won’t even attempt to do this
i heard Tesla catalytic converter is worth at least $2K on the black market...
because of the rarity
They need to be investigates and heavily fined. Mine was stolen 11/27/2021 I hate thieves.
I'll get in more trouble for taking them off then someone stealing them. What a joke.
Don't have politicians coddling thieves for years and then expect a different outcome today.
I'd love to catch them in the act and drop the jack on them. Poetic justice!
Got mine taken a month ago and it was a pain. I reported it to the police and it took days for it to get approved.
Note what the DA says at 5:00 . . .and remember, the people in CA voted for this.
Scrap yards should be on lookout and be held accountable if they take them.. imagine that. They don't know WTF is going on.
A thief will grind away any etched numbers in 10 seconds flat and not alter the black market value of the part at all. ETCHING/ENGRAVING YOUR VIN IS A COMPLETE AND TOTAL WASTE OF EVERYONE'S TIME. Valuable time that could be used to fight this crime for real. You are fooling yourself if you think engraving a VIN will deter a thief.
Oh wow news media actually doing investigative journalism. Well shit.
You could set up a quick disconnect with the Catalytic converter...When you dont' need to smog, pop in a reg. muffler....In two years, swap out with the converty..Even if you did this every other year for ten years, and had a mech do it, it would be way cheaper if you don't have insurance...
They should just install a security plate. It looks like skid plate. It will take longer for thieves to cut out and they would have to jack up up more than one point on a vehicle. If they see that security plate they may be deterred as they are just opportunistic criminals looking for an easy crime.
@@bl8danjil great concept! 💯👀💅🏾
You have to be joking? Your engine will throw codes and put you in limp mode and run like crap...you have 02 sensors that need to be plugged into the Catalytic converter. Unless you spend a couple grand getting a tune.
5 cars = $1000 a night. Honest hard work. I hope the car owners repair fast to keep the supply going. Wouldn't want the thieves to lose their jobs.
Dey is gud kidz jus gettin dey reparationz
Yall voted for this! 💯
Invent a thick, tool grade, steel shield that is hardened, so it dulls any saw blade.
People with stolen cats should just park outside wherever lawmakers meetup and just rev their engines
No shit they're turning the blind eye
Arrest the people that buy them! They clearly know that they are buying stolen goods!
No they don't. Junk yards, hot rodders, mechanics, and DIY mechanics sell cats to the same recycling centers.
@@trumpisaconfirmedcuck5840 yeah right all of a sudden hundreds of people are showing up with Cat converters. The buyers are not stupid they know that s*** is stolen.
@@caravanaband6211 It's going to be a small number of thieves compared to junk yards. Thieves will look more like junk yard sellers because they're hauling them in by the truck or van load. It's so profitable you could take them out of state or out of the country even.
Defund the police right?
This is an easy fix, really. Make federal laws requiring OEM parts for exhaust systems nationwide and make the recycling industry pick up the tab for the thefts. They will in turn figure out a way to stop buying stolen ones real quick and the illegal aftermarket for them will dry up shortly thereafter.
They will just cannibalize the precious metals. I don't know how many of these are actually being used for repurposed cat converters in cars anyways. It's not as if the process to get these materials is some kind of magic known only by the recycling industry.
@@coryc9040 There are always those who believe that a 1% failure justifies not doing anything about the other 99%. 👏👏👏
@@jimk8520 Have you ever heard a liberal offer any solution to any problem that didn't involve throwing money at the issue?
@@captinbeyond Every time a real solution is proposed, those that don’t like it try to make the solution a political issue. Have you ever seen a politician from either side of the isle try to solve a problem without money involved? 🤣
@@jimk8520 Yes, I have seen politician enact solutions that did not spend money. Just this summer, my state rep's in Texas passed laws to force liberal judges in liberal cities like Houston /Dallas/San Antonio to stop letting criminals back out on the street with no bond when they were charged with serious crimes. No money needed, and no taxes raised. They also passed laws governing how to vote by mail in ballot to stop democrats from stealing Texas like Stacy Abrahams did in Georgia and again, didn't cost a dime. Only one party believes that money is the solution to every problem and that is democrats.
Believe it or not, the solution is simple - but it starts at manufacture. Cars have a VIN, airplane parts are all serialized. Why not cats? Know your serial # and when it’s stolen, a recycler would have to clear the cat as not hot through a database and flush out it as ripped. With regulation, this can work.
Those people get what they voted for
Is this what the bay area is now? Nothing but crime. Lol
It's not just the SF Bay Area, it's all over the country.
Comifornia, giving the nation a glimpse of what #BiteMe wants for all of America.
You can also have thick sheet metal cut to fit the bottom of your vehicle to make it inaccessible to thieves. It can be done for $200 or less.
Have you ever considered prosecute I bet they’ll keep a record if we prosecute them
The scrap yards KNOW dam well there stolen
What would happen in Coeur d'Alene Idaho trying this ?
Just checked a vehicle parts eShop here in Ghana. They have 75 catalytic converters available, all look like they've been cut off. Someone's buying them for export.
Perimeter fencing around your property. Gate your driveway. Best thing I ever did
They can cut a locks with the sawzall if they really want to they can still break in and steal it
@@HotRed00 Locks are on the inside when you lock up for the night
I work for a storage facility with a fence all the way around it 8 different locations 20 to 30 times a year I have to go out and mend many fences.
Cost them 5 grand?
The news producers can hook you up for $62 apparently.
Make it criminal to knowingly purchase stolen catalytic converters. And or charge large fines.
It is already illegal to buy any stolen property.
We simply need to keep thieving animals caged when they are caught and convicted.
Well the idea about making those selling these to scrap dealers put the VIN number on them would force some clarity into it where we could trace the stolen ones to the thieves. The scrap dealers already photo their drivers license and ID's
@@captinbeyond Putting VIN numbers on yet another part will increase the cost of production and ultimately mean the cars will cost more. Why should I have to pay more for a car?
@@mrwonk requiring a scrap dealer to put the vin number on the stolen converters he buys from the car thief will NOT cause the price of a new or used car to go up. I'm not talking about putting them on new cars from the factory, just make the scrap dealer and thief do it so we can see if those cat's are stolen. Make the scrap dealer submit his list of vin/cats to the local government each month and they can compare that to the data base of stolen cats. Just trying to make it harder to sell the stolen cats
@@captinbeyond Catalytic converters don't currently have vin numbers on them. hey can't record numbers that don't exist. Scrap dealers know most of them are stolen, they are knowingly buying stolen property through willful ignorance. Arrest the scrap dealers, arrest the criminals whey they are caught and stop letting them back out onto the streets.
They steal them due to the debt that they got themselves into in the last year for purchasing new cars.
Best shopping if you're on a budget or just simply want to use your own money for drugs and alcohol. Vote Democrat for the best looting opportunities...
stealing from a charity is a low
Here’s an idea. Make it illegal to buy or ship catalytic converters period.
Then companies will have a hard time replacing them everytime they are stolen / fricked with
I have a better idea. Make it legal to shoot or lower the jack on someome stealing your cat.
They need to make it a criminal act to buy them from anybody but a dealership or auto supplier
Etching the numbers still do;t work as they can easily sand it off or solder it full and sand down.
take the stupid things off the cars the only reason car companies have to put them on is because of tree-hugger laws. if yours does get stolen just have a muffler shop weld you a straight pipe.
You would probably have to have your cars computer reprogrammed and the sensors bypassed if you take the converter off so it would run properly
The shops are reinstalling the same part on the same car.
Etching a VIN on the cat won't slow thieves down at all... it'll just take them about 2 minutes to grind it off.
It also affects how well the housing disperses the heat buildup, creating weak points that become hotter.
You can install prevention devices, such as cages, but I've no idea how well those actually work.
the alarm on the cars shoud simply have vibration sensors on the exhaust..
This is all over the country, so Federal government needs to get involved. Laws could be changed so vin numbers are stamped on all catalytic converters.
Ok if VIINs are stamped on the cats... then what? Unless you catch them in the act like now or hauling a van full of cats (also like now) what will that do? They'll still be taken to a recycling center and sold.
BTW legit junk yards sell them to recycling centers too.
@@trumpisaconfirmedcuck5840 There’s a record of valid VIN numbers so it can be determined if the vehicle was scraped or not.
@@raybod1775 Assuming the recycling center or smelter cares.
Remember you can always ship them out of the country too.
@@trumpisaconfirmedcuck5840 If they’re that sophisticated, they’ll be stealing and shipping out entire vehicles.
@@raybod1775 You get a lot more bang for the buck shipping a 1000 4 pound cats than a 4000 pound car you silly goose.
And if you watched the video, it does show them being shipped across state lines and internationally:
th-cam.com/video/Xp7vXM110NQ/w-d-xo.html
When you replace the converter don't use an oem one. Use an aftermarket one as they aren't worth anything in scrap value. The thieves know which ones are aftermarket or OEM. If they see an aftermarket unit they'll move on.
I think you aren’t allowed to put an aftermarket part in any part of the exhaust system in California, your car will not pass the emissions inspection. (Don’t ask me where’s the logic in that, this is California)
@@luiskp7173 oh ok. Yeah I'm not in communist Cali. I'm in AZ
@@brandonGCHACHU yeah to pass emission in Az: make sure the "check engine" light is off...that's a pass
@@luiskp7173 yea you can. It was adjusted recently. I have an 04 Honda Accord and had mine stolen. So I’ve been looking into fixing it myself and you can use an aftermarket cat. It just needs to be CARB complaint and once you install it, you have to take pictures of it and send them to the referee program where you set up on appointment to have them clear your cat for smog.
@@amj_-ws7uy Good to know. As I said I wasn’t completely sure.
Weird they don't mention installing a shield.
Typical democrat politician, wants to force the car companies to change instead of prosecuting the criminals.
I have test pipes on my car. I always take the cats out already lol.
Law should be harder on thieves. That's it, anything else is a band aid.
They want clean air and conduct vehicle emissions but can't stop the theft. So when does it get stupid enough to the point when you can not do emissions due to less customers with less cats
The obvious solution is to let people install relatively cheap aftermarket cats if theirs are stolen or stop working. I grew up in California (my mom still lives there). Her car has a clogged cat and I tried to look up some for her to buy cheaper than her mechanic quoted her and nope! They cost 4x as much. Non-California cats were relatively cheap.
And mandate insurance covers full cost, no deductible replacement of cats.
It's so expensive for my mom though that she just bought a new(er) car and is going to send hers to us since it's a little SUV and we could use a spare vehicle, especially one with transport capabilities.
Guess what I'm going to do because there are no emissions here? Saw the cat off, sell it, and get an exhaust shop to install a pipe in its place.
If you have a Honda Element be on the look out!!
Mine and my coworkers got taken yesterday in broad daylight in hawaii. Over 1800 stolen this yr alone on oahu
I hoarded catalytic converters for a decade from the cars that I scrapped out or otherwise replaced a faulty catalyst on.
I cashed them in last summer and got $800. I should not be punished for doing this.
if it's your stuff then I see no issues with it. Enjoy!
Wow, I didn't know this was a problem. I Park in a somewhat private parking lot. I also have a security cam facing the lot to record my car & such!
This just happened to me yesterday in NYC.
WOW Michelle...thanks for that break down!!! lol I was wondering....Man they hire smart ones at the sherriffs de pot.....
White guy wearing a Covid mask running around town trying to sell one converter and got no bites. Why am I not surprised?
It need to be mandatory that a serial number put on them
Police need to find out what shops or people are buying that part. No buyers will stop the thefts.
I know some that have turned a blind eye when my CC was almost stolen.
Then charge everyone in the system with the crime . Then you’ll eventually get the crumbs at the top & bottom . It’s an eye for an eye today as they would cancel or bash anyone against them otherwise . They all know where it’s coming from so they’re equally at fault for this crime against society and it’s only making our insurance costs go up due to this greed . This way we weed out the lowlifes actually stealing them off our cars . Stop them there before society goes vigilante on them leaving bodies .
6:35 "Something has to be done about the 'Black' Market" -He said it, not me!
I just seen 2 guys trying to steal a cat from a Tesla
So you're saying you need more regulations
Supply and demand
Frank castle we need you !
Etching an ID number on the outside of the cat. conv. housing is a waste of time. It will take any thief who sees such a marking, 5 seconds with a grinder to remove such a thing.
This is a collegiate "how to" video for mob members that cannot make legitimate income.
Mine was stolen ,i went to a market for 15inutes and when i came out it was stolen. i had to buy it for $500 for my car to pass the smog test.
Just because you don't have security in your expensive neighborhood it's not car manufacturers fault
3 times on same car ,shame on you. Get anti theft measures .
They cut from my Prius 3 times so since I don’t have a garage to park in in the night I took to the auction.
Lol 3 times
@@YouStupid69 in 3 months. Finally I gave up. I sold that car to auction.
@@tamiibrock6176 yea thats sad. I had prius before. Now I have tesla. No worries theft
What can you do when no company or govt agency cares enough about a "petty" crime to do anything about it?
With modern technology surely a micro tracking unit could be installed, it's the corrupt people who buy them that need sentencing
It's actually Platinum, palladium, and Rhodium that the thieves are stealing your catalytic converter for.. Rhodium went to $30,000 per Troy oz this year.
We don't need Batman. We need the Punisher.
So Gascon wants to put the blame on auto manufacturers 😠.
Just given the death penalty for stealing that way they would stop stealing catalytic converter.
👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
My sister got hers stolen a month ago
Go after the scrap yards for taking them. The state should install cameras in the scrap yards and scan every one they bring in. If not lock them up for 10 thatll fix it quick.
Beautiful ☺
It’s illegal in CA to possess more than 5 milk crates but apparently possessing a bunch of stolen Catalytic converters is fine
wait... what? wtf are you serious