Yet another reason to get an electric car
No catalytic converter theft, no gas gouging, no oil changes. I read things like this and is just makes me hope more people get on board.
In the meantime, I’ll be sticking with my Tesla, thanks.
Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring
181–190 of 487 posts
Re: Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring
#182This is happening more and more frequently in my locale. Several of my friends and many of my neighbors have had their catalytic converters stolen. It's good to see something is done. Let's hope this steamrolls into a nationwide manhunt for these criminals. 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 b…
It's literally "going out of style". Gotta get all the cat converters you can before all the cars are electric!
I'd expect the charging cables to be the easy target then. EV owners, please correct me if I'm wrong but I can't imagine that the charging port would be able resist a cordless drill for more then 4 or 5 seconds. And from what I've seen of the CCS connectors, Home Depot probably carries big drill bits long enough drill into into and completely destroy the locking mechanism.
Drill in, destroy the the charging port on the car, retrieve the cable and sell on Ebay. How much do one of those charging cables go? $200? If not, and if the owner does something to lock the cable, cutting it for the copper is still worth a few dollars.
Re: Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring
#183Good, an EE at our office had a new truck 3 days before thieves cut off part of the exhaust system. =/
Re: Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring
#184Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Ridiculously targeted laws like this are quite a new invention. I see that the “[feeling of] safety above all” contingent is quite voracious about defending this latest government intrusion, so I’ll stop giving them comments to downvote.
Maybe it's how you frame anyone who wants actionable solutions as screaming "WON'T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN?"... Applying very narrow information collection requirements on a rare act that is prone to illegal activity is exactly the type of "government intrusion" we should welcome. If you want a hill to die on, pick something more meaningful.
Re: Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 .
Yes, if you mean pseudoephedrine, that's to stop the production of meth.
I thought it was to prevent competing with the cartels?
Re: Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
Dogs are smarter than people.
How's the canine space program going? Any reusable rocket bodies yet?
Dogs did beat humans to space. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_space_dogs
Re: Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
People would grind off the serial numbers and sell them on the secondary market, or for the metals. With motorcycles, for example, motors and frames have vin numbers stamped to help prevent this, but you’ll sometimes see cheap parts for sale with the vin cleaned off.
In case anyone thinks this is cost prohibitive or the tooling is rare, a $100 battery powered grinder you can buy from Home Depot will do this in five seconds. If you have a little less money and a little more time, a $5 flat file will do the same thing in a few minutes.
You know... we already have vehicle IDs on the body, the frame, and the engine on/in our cars. Those do lead to arrest every day here in the U.S.
Re: Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring
#188Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s not murder if it’s legal. Just like killing in war isn’t murder. The guy stealing your catalytic converters defiantly deserves it more than the random dude in Iraq.
Don't kill anyone who is not trying to murder you. If you catch someone stealing your catalyst, you use your weapon to deter a violent action of his part, not to stop the theft by murdering him. The fact that he is willing to disregard societal property norms, already flags him as potentially dangerous, s he might enforce his criminal difference of opinion by using violence. That is why security is armed; Not to shoo…
This is a good way to get murdered by someone prepared to murder someone that stops them from their property crime.
Re: Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring
#189Earlier quoted context omitted.
I doubt it. Catalytic converters are stolen because they're valuable and easy to make off with . Car batteries are frickin giant, and if you try and take only a piece you get a giant fire instead of a valuable source of rare metals. They don't seem like a great thing to steal.
You are really discounting the ingenuity of criminals. If they can steal 4 tires with wheel locks off your car, they can steal your undercarriage battery.
EV batteries are becoming STRUCTURAL, meaning they make up the core vehicle shell of the car, use hardened steel reinforcement and weight 1-2K pounds. They're also super dangerous if punctured. It would be easier to steal the whole vehicle than to steal the battery alone.
I'd go so far as to say that an EV is a glorified "battery with wheels" since the actual drive components are a minority of the weight/complexity/cost. If a criminal can steal the whole EV, they will, if they cannot then stealing the battery alone isn't realistic.
Re: Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring
#190Earlier quoted context omitted.
> When did we become so comfortable with the government mandating presentation of papers and tracking of private transactions? After Timothy McVeigh blew up a building with a truck full of agricultural supplies.
How well did that prevent 9/11? The decrease in domestic terrorism is due to societal changes and better old-fashioned policing of home-grown extremist groups. We didn’t somehow make it impossible (or even difficult) to improvise large explosives.
How well did laws to stop isolated crazy people killing lots of people stop … um … a group of countries investing large amounts of money and years of time into planning and training for the largest single attack on a civilian target in history?
I mean sure, you could also ask how laws against shoplifting fail to stop bank robberies, and it would be just as coherent.