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Catalytic Converter Theft

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Re: Catalytic Converter Theft

#121

Post by iammisc »

123pie123 wrote: post #6
jl6 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They’re melted down and the result is pure untraceable metal. Rhodium vendors can’t be common though. What’s the story the fences give? “This is all from my small-scale family rhodium mine”?

in the uk there are laws requiring logs and proof of identity when trading scrap metal. I suspect with Catalytic Converter thefts, the CATs are small enough and light enough to be shipped abroad

Same in Oregon. I was on a grand jury here and metal dealing without paperwork is a felony. I asked the DA and he said this is why

Re: Catalytic Converter Theft

#123

Post by dang »

bananapizza wrote: post #15
ehvatum wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly, this really is the Bay Area administrative position on the matter.

It is indeed, to all of our detriment in my opinion. Won’t stop the HN downvote brigade from attempting to quickly hide it to avoid having to address it, though. Edit, original comment below. It’s very interesting, and to me, very telling, that HN seems to reach for censorship quicker than good-faith refutation of the core argument. Which here is simply that we have in fact lost the ability to enforce law in many are…

What you posted is not an "argument", just flamewar, and you've broken probably most of the site guidelines in just this thread alone. Please don't create accounts to do that with.

Plenty of users have posted substantive comments on both sides of this issue. The idea that "HN" is out to get you because of your views is puerile when you're violating the rules so flagrantly.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Catalytic Converter Theft

#124

Post by mikestew »

jtbayly wrote: post #103
geephroh wrote: post #95

This has become enough of an issue here in the Seattle metro area that the King County prosecutor's office has a special taskforce, in conjunction with several neighboring jurisdictions. It happens in the city, the suburbs, and even at busy trailheads. It's particularly concerning because some folks are beginning to take matters into their own hands[1]. 1. https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/man-accused-.…

What do you expect people to do if the civil magistrate decides not to protect people's life and property?

What do I expect people to do? Not drag people behind a truck over a car part. What, you think that’s reasonable? Or is it just the shooting that you don’t find to be over the top?

Re: Catalytic Converter Theft

#125

Post by dang »

GonzaloQuero wrote: post #26
bananapizza wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is indeed, to all of our detriment in my opinion. Won’t stop the HN downvote brigade from attempting to quickly hide it to avoid having to address it, though. Edit, original comment below. It’s very interesting, and to me, very telling, that HN seems to reach for censorship quicker than good-faith refutation of the core argument. Which here is simply that we have in fact lost the ability to enforce law in many are…

You're making a mockery of the talking points about defunding the police, then asking people to actually spend time debating you. Please, reconsider the way you argue about things.

"Don't feed egregious comments by replying; flag them instead."

a.k.a. please don't feed the trolls

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Catalytic Converter Theft

#126

Post by systemvoltage »

f38zf5vdt wrote: post #85
_huayra_ wrote: post #52

It's things like this that make it such a shock to go to an extremely safe country / area. All the little scripts one has to keep track of to be "safe and secure" in the US (e.g. instinctively locking your doors all the way to learning that you can't park in SF to take your girlfriend to lunch on your way to drop her off at the airport because a big suitcase is a target for these rampant smash-and-grabs; unfortunatel…

I garner a _lot_ of downvotes every time I mention that the US in many locales shares more in common with a third world country than a first world country. So many people seem addicted to the notion of US cultural superiority because their jobs pay the most. Go on YouTube or Google street view and see for yourself. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1MveHv1lTVBzdM5VYZkcBQ/vid... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opo3OuU…

Instead of anecdotes, how about we look at objective data?

https://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/

Re: Catalytic Converter Theft

#127

Post by cartoonworld »

pengaru wrote: post #104
cartoonworld wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

200-400% hasn't been my experience, but I'll give you maybe they should expand carb nationwide to increase the demand side of the curve, lowering costs overall. >if the cat isn't working, the vehicle should fail its regular smog test. The vehicle ECU monitors the exhaust composition before and after the first catalyst. Downstream, the performance is not monitored by the computer. afiak the ECU doesn't have the capabi…

> 200-400% hasn't been my experience, but I'll give you maybe they should expand carb nationwide to increase the demand side of the curve, lowering costs overall. 49-state legal, direct-fit: $118 https://www.ebay.com/itm/253120020746 CA-legal, universal: $776 https://www.ebay.com/itm/304044103436 CA-legal direct-fit: $1048 (!) https://www.ebay.com/itm/174087409201 > The vehicle ECU monitors the exhaust composition be…

I gotcha, it's. 1994-97 miata and there aren't a lot of cats left. Such is the life of a classic car owner.

>I don't see what any of this has to do with smog tests, and it's not even accurate for all vehicles (pre obd2 has just a single narrow band o2 sensor

You mentioned the smog tests, saying if the vehicle can't measure them they aren't worth a damn

>If the smog checks are worth a damn it shouldn't be necessary to certify the catalysts; if the cat isn't working, the vehicle should fail its regular smog test.

Thats why it is not off-topic.

No cars monitor for the smog gasses. That's why Cali uses a special sniffer and a dyno to run a load test. In order to accomplish their stated goal of reducing pbotochemical smog, they must employ a dyno to test under load to monitor the production of nox and hydrocarbons out the tail pipe.

The oxygen sensors pre-obd2 were never used in any state for emissions, In my state we did a 2 speed idle test on a dyno which is being retired currently as all required vehicles are now exempt from this test.

We still are running oxygen sensors for engine management in every car. They do not sense any smog gasses.

Re: Catalytic Converter Theft

#129

Post by jtbayly »

mikestew wrote: post #124
jtbayly wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you expect people to do if the civil magistrate decides not to protect people's life and property?

What do I expect people to do? Not drag people behind a truck over a car part. What, you think that’s reasonable? Or is it just the shooting that you don’t find to be over the top?

Taking things into their own hands is literally all that is left, unless you are a pacifist. I never made any statement about how people should take it into their own hands or what degree was acceptable or over what. Nor did I say anything about shootings being acceptable. So take your straw man out of here.

What would you do is if somebody was taking $1500 of yours along with your ability to provide for yourself for several days while your vehicle is out of commission?

(Or is it only when the government does that through civil asset forfeiture that you have a problem with it? Two can play at this game, you know.)

Remember, “call the police” isn’t an option.

Re: Catalytic Converter Theft

#130

Post by throwaway0a5e »

beerandt wrote: post #92
dragontamer wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Adding licensing requirements will just result in the people with licenses buying from the thiefs. Lets think about this situation in programming terms. "Fixing this exploit will just result in the people finding another bug to exploit". Well... yeah. That's the point. You don't necessarily want to stop all crimes (I mean, you do, but that's just unreasonable). Everyone is happy with simple deterrence: making crime…

This is the thinking that got us: 1) the mess that is DRM, whether for software or media, and 2) to the point of 10-step windows activation (including phone calls and having to reinstall because one version only takes retail keys and another only takes oem keys and another only uses network auth), and 3) video games that try and re-authenticate between every frame of play And tons of other "fixes" that just punish us…

This isn't fixing an exploit. It's slapping a manager review on anything that gets run on the prod DB.
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