Isn't gary vee the head of this theft ring? https://www.reddit.com/r/h3h3productions/comments/ul2ar5/tha...
Thieves don’t use sockets though, they use saws.
Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring
291–300 of 487 posts
Re: Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring
#292Re: Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring
#293Earlier quoted context omitted.
> This theft is so costly and prevalent in my neighborhood, it's like $2,500 per 100 people. In 2 years, I've had mine stolen twice. Bay area? i thought i was bad in Socal, I had my Gen 2 Prius siting outside a residential area near a major university town while I was away in EU and had mine stolen. I had to junk a decently running hybrid because of this as Toyota had a shortage of them and since the Prius was design…
Yes, Bay, also Gen 2 Prius (#1 target). Luckily, I had insurance to cover both, but still $1k of deductibles and premiums. I also had a shield installed after the first time, as they're supposed to slow down enough to deter most, but alas it was still hit again. Now, I have to garage the car at night by constantly moving home gym equipment, so my life is still somewhat negatively impacted to this day.
> Yes, Bay, also Gen 2 Prius (#1 target).
Yea, they have the most PM of all cars on the road in the US; Toyota over built them as they were to be the California car and as you know many are still on the road as result of this over-engineering despite this high theft issue.
At least you got to keep yours, I bought mine as a salvage buy-back from it's original owner (2008 with only 72k miles) but it had a check engine light on it (p420/bad cat) since the accident.
I had the bare min liability since I was in Europe at the time and I was thinking of putting it on non-op. I installed a new cat in 2018 I bought from Toyota and drove it when I was in CA since I lived in CO most of the year when I lived in the US. I wanted a shield but most had mixed reviews. I left thinking our neighborhood is mainly family's and with so many at home during covid I'd be safe.
Wrong assumption on my part.
> I also had a shield installed after the first time,
Yeah, not all shields are built equally, some you can't even remove from the chassis after they're installed causing an issue with visual inspections and having automatic fails so they put little peek windows on them in later versions/iterations; hence the parallel economy that sprung over 2020-21 after many years of theft as it became so wide-spread, I was on Prius chat quite a lot those years and it was like every couple of hours you'd see a new member with a 'cat stolen' thread.
> Now, I have to garage the car at night by constantly moving home gym equipment, so my life is still somewhat negatively impacted to this day.
Well, you can always sell it, the premiums on them are so good on one in CA you can probably get something else if it's that much of an issue on you since things are likely to remain that way in the Bay Area.
But I'm guessing like most Prius owners, especially after all this ordeal, you will probably keep it until it dies at this point. When did yours get stolen and when was it replaced, most of 2021 Toyota was out of them [0] and did your insurance cover it with full coverage? What does it cost to insure now after this?
I scrapped mine because the tags were due and I couldn't find a cat without a massive premium and ultimately reporting it would increase insurance on all my cars and bikes and that wasn't worth it in the end.
0: https://www.torquenews.com/8113/toyota-prius-catalytic-conve...
Re: Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring
#294How would one go about legally selling a catalytic converter? I removed the exhaust from one of my vehicles about 15 years ago when I replaced the worn out engine and have had the old catalytic converter sitting around in my shop ever since. The catalytic converter came from a 1992 model vehicle. The whole exhaust was replaced with a custom stainless steel exhaust front to back with a 50-state compliant catalytic con…
Any scrapyard will offer you cash for it, just call. OEM are worth much more, hence the rise of cat thefts.
I wonder what the difference between the OEM converter from 1992 and the replacement from 2007 would be. The OEM converter is easily twice as large but the replacement is certified 50 state compliant and CARB approved from a manufacturer in California. I guess the technology improved or the ceramic composition changed.
Re: Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring
#295Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Nobody cares about your allergies, and if you go to buy Sudafed, they're just going to sell it to you. The only thing that will trip you up is if you go from store to store collecting lots of it. That's not true. First they don't just sell it to you, they take your ID, record your information, send that to the state, and then sell it you. Going to one store after another after another collecting lots of pills isn't…
How much Sudafed did you buy?! The daily purchase limits are pretty high. Did you max out your monthly limit in your hometown before traveling? Really, if we're this wound up about the situation, the answer is simple: just make Sudafed require a prescription, like a zillion other medications. The problem with Sudafed is extremely straightforward: it is a very trivial chemical reaction away from being methamphetamine.
The daily limit where I live is 1/2 the monthly limit. Purchasing this amount every two weeks will eventually result in a violation.
Requiring a prescription for common cold medicine raises the price of cold relief from $12 to $100+.
Re: Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring
#296Re: Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring
#297How would one go about legally selling a catalytic converter? I removed the exhaust from one of my vehicles about 15 years ago when I replaced the worn out engine and have had the old catalytic converter sitting around in my shop ever since. The catalytic converter came from a 1992 model vehicle. The whole exhaust was replaced with a custom stainless steel exhaust front to back with a 50-state compliant catalytic con…
I looked into this a year ago when I bought a house and the previous owner had left two catalytic converters in the garage from old project cars. The conclusion I came to was that if I didn't look shady, the cats still had their mounting flanges on them (not sawed off), and no problem giving the recycling yard my contact info, I'd have no problems.
This is probably what I'll do with mine. I knew at the time that the catalytic converter should be recycled so I kept it. I just never got around to finding a place to take it. When I looked around, most of the places for metals are in the part of the county where we have all the meth-heads. I typically avoid that area. Some of them tried to steal my utility trailer from my driveway a couple years after I moved here. Luckily I heard them outside and ran them off.
Re: Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring
#298Treating this press release like a story problem in 5th grade math, there's something off:
> Last year approximately 1,600 catalytic converters were reportedly stolen in California each month, and California accounts for 37% of all catalytic converter theft claims nationwide.
> The black-market price for catalytic converters can be above $1,000 each, depending on the type of vehicle and what state it is from.
> Defendants ... operated DG Auto... DG Auto sold the precious metal powders it processed from California and elsewhere to a metal refinery for over $545 million.
How did they make $545M in a racket whose upper limit on annual profit is a tenth of that? Perhaps that figure represents DG Auto's gross revenue, only a portion of which comes from recycling converters?
Re: Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring
#299Re: Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring
#300Treating this press release like a story problem in 5th grade math, there's something off: > Last year approximately 1,600 catalytic converters were reportedly stolen in California each month, and California accounts for 37% of all catalytic converter theft claims nationwide. > The black-market price for catalytic converters can be above $1,000 each, depending on the type of vehicle and what state it is from. > Defen…
> > Defendants ... operated DG Auto... DG Auto sold the precious metal powders it processed from California and elsewhere to a metal refinery for over $545 million.
> How did they make $545M in a racket whose upper limit on annual profit is a tenth of that? Perhaps that figure represents DG Auto's gross revenue, only a portion of which comes from recycling converters?
Because the converters themselves are only worth $1k each on the black market, but apparently quite a bit more if stripped and processed further, to bare precious metal powders, which are much easier to work with.