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Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring

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Re: Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring

#151

Post by gpm »

scottdevries wrote: post #11

I wonder if the same amount of resources will be used to take down the Nationwide Bicycle Theft Ring as well.

Is there a national bicycle theft ring? I have a vague impression that it's mostly small groups. Steal a few bikes, maybe swap some parts around, sell them as used bikes, repeat.

This takedown seems to have been possible because there was a central group that was moving hundreds of millions of dollars of stolen goods - maybe even billions if you take "cost to manufacture" instead of "resell value". Why would a bike theft ring that centralized exist?

Re: Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring

#153

Post by themitigating »

TheLoafOfBread wrote: post #103
kazinator wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's literally "going out of style". Gotta get all the cat converters you can before all the cars are electric!

Batteries will get stolen for same reason.

A tesla model 3 battery weighs over 1000lbs

Re: Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring

#154

Post by PM_me_your_math »

Nullabillity wrote: post #40
TEP_Kim_Il_Sung wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of people seem to use "killing" and "murder" interchangably, though they are different in more than legal ways. A building collapsing can kill a person, as can a landslide, and an uncontrollably skidding car. A lion attacking a human and eating his organs is no murderer, and neither is that human for defending themselves by killing that lion before he can finish his attack. One human killing another does not ne…

GGP is talking about intentionally killing people. That's murder. Please consider applying the correct word to the context you wish to discuss.

Well no.

Murder is the unlawful killing of another.

Homicide is human death by the hands of another human.

Murder is a legal term.

Re: Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring

#155

Post by rosywoozlechan »

catiopatio wrote: post #132
humanistbot wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They should also consider targeting and auditing shops that buy used car parts. Making it extremely difficult to fence these things will be practical and useful because they aren't sold and reused as is California just passed a law to this end, which is pretty straightforward and effectively turns the grey market into a black market. A black market will still exist, but it will be a lot harder for legitimate junkya…

> It basically mandates KYC (Know Your Customer) procedures for companies that buy or sell catalytic converters, and it makes buying or selling a catalytic converter without documentation that it was obtained legally a crime. This is worse than the original problem. When did we become so comfortable with the government mandating presentation of papers and tracking of private transactions? Effective, privacy-preservin…

> When did we become so comfortable with the government mandating presentation of papers and tracking of private transactions?

Have you ever run a business? You have to track a lot already. For the IRS, for your business license, for auditing, for compliance depending on what goods and services you sell. You know like firearms, tobacco, alcohol, pharmaceuticals are big ones, but also animals, chemicals, certain kinds of technology. If you require a federal permit, if you sell goods across state, international, if you ship things. Like, I feel like this cat came out of the bag before the 18th century, based on my understanding of the regulation of businesses in the United States.

Re: Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring

#156

Post by Melting_Harps »

ck2 wrote: post #56

A huge part of problem if not the entire trigger is someone is looking the other way when buying them. There is no way in hell the buyers don't know the volume and source is complete wrong and criminal. If no-one is buying they won't be stolen.

> There is no way in hell the buyers don't know the volume and source is complete wrong and criminal.

I sold my defective OEM Prius cat on EBay (I bought it knowing it was broken on my car and installed new in 2018) for parts to test how liquid the market was before I went looking for funding (post above) and doing DD and market research, it was rather easy and someone paid within two hours for the reserve price ($1000+).

Shipping was the biggest headache/cost of the whole process, but the guys on ebay buy Platinum, Platinum, Rhodium are still around.

While I don't deny some larger brokers at work, possibly OEMS, the fact is that everyone was grifting during covid, the stock market and real estate was soaring, corpo America (and the World) was flush wit bailout money etc... This wasn't even a blip on the radar of the billions being made.

Re: Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring

#157

Post by [deleted] »

dymk wrote: post #116
sokoloff wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you give a dog timely and consistent corrections, it really does learn. That's literally half the battle in house-training a dog. (Yes, you try to control and arrange success and praise when the dog does the right thing, but you also correct when it does the wrong thing.)

Positive-punishment reinforcement has shown to be less effective and more time consuming than positive-reinforcement training time and time again in dogs. Humans might learn from positive punishment and deterrence, dogs are less good at it.

[deleted]

Re: Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring

#158

Post by krapht »

catiopatio wrote: post #132
humanistbot wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They should also consider targeting and auditing shops that buy used car parts. Making it extremely difficult to fence these things will be practical and useful because they aren't sold and reused as is California just passed a law to this end, which is pretty straightforward and effectively turns the grey market into a black market. A black market will still exist, but it will be a lot harder for legitimate junkya…

> It basically mandates KYC (Know Your Customer) procedures for companies that buy or sell catalytic converters, and it makes buying or selling a catalytic converter without documentation that it was obtained legally a crime. This is worse than the original problem. When did we become so comfortable with the government mandating presentation of papers and tracking of private transactions? Effective, privacy-preservin…

Just wait until you hear about the history of anti-fencing laws dating back to the 1600s. You're missing out on centuries of outage.

Re: Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring

#159

Post by pyuser583 »

user_7832 wrote: post #143
pyuser583 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends on the property. I have medication I need to live. If I don’t take it regularly daily, a clock starts ticking. When the time is up, I die. When I travel I treat my bags like my life. I recent had nasty run in with an airline that wanted me to check my bags. I refused to get on the plane. When I took the next flight, my checked baggage didn’t make the connection. I might have survived if I got to the ER fas…

Yeah, it definitely depends on the context. If someone stole my bag from my car they'd get a few ml of insulin which is practically worthless to them, but is absolutely necessary for me. If you don't mind my asking, what medication do you take?

I’d prefer not to say. HN has a no deletion policy after two hours, so I’m more cautious here than on other forums.

Re: Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring

#160

Post by catiopatio »

rosywoozlechan wrote: post #155
catiopatio wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It basically mandates KYC (Know Your Customer) procedures for companies that buy or sell catalytic converters, and it makes buying or selling a catalytic converter without documentation that it was obtained legally a crime. This is worse than the original problem. When did we become so comfortable with the government mandating presentation of papers and tracking of private transactions? Effective, privacy-preservin…

> When did we become so comfortable with the government mandating presentation of papers and tracking of private transactions? Have you ever run a business? You have to track a lot already. For the IRS, for your business license, for auditing, for compliance depending on what goods and services you sell. You know like firearms, tobacco, alcohol, pharmaceuticals are big ones, but also animals, chemicals, certain kinds…

It’s gotten considerably worse over the past 20 years; we’re asked to present ID and tracked in government databases when purchasing allergy medicine.
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