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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

#301

Post by mieko »

jakogut wrote: post #62
reustle wrote: post #38

Earlier 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.

Yeah: No one thinks it's mechanically difficult to remove identifiers. The point is to make such altered parts illegal to buy. Similar to VIN restrictions or handgun signifiers in many states.

Re: Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring

#302

Post by acchow »

ineptech wrote: post #298

Treating 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…

1) maybe they ran the ring for more than a decade?

2) 1600 is just the number reported. I’d imagine not many people report the thefts, especially if your car insurance premiums will rise (insurance companies raise premiums even if you don’t make a claim if they have information that suggests your neighborhood or places you frequent are at increased risk of theft)

3) possibly the rate of catalytic converter thefts has risen dramatically in 2022 compared to 2021

Re: Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring

#303

Post by scarface74 »

rosywoozlechan wrote: post #165
catiopatio wrote: post #160

Earlier 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.

How is that working out?

Re: Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring

#304

Post by Melting_Harps »

SoftTalker wrote: post #244
giantg2 wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They already have a lot of scrutiny on used catalytic converters. It sounds like this ring might have been smelting the precious scrap.

Yeah it happened to my car like 6 or 8 years ago. I called around to salvage yards to try to buy a used exhaust. I needed basically everything from the manifold back due to where the thief made his cuts. Every yard told me that they aren't allowed to deal in used exhaust systems. I had to buy a new aftermarket exhaust or a new one from the dealer.

> Every yard told me that they aren't allowed to deal in used exhaust systems.

This is uniquely a CA issue, some after-market vendors wont even sip to CA/NY; however, most states will allow you to retrieve them from junked cars and will personally do that for you if you are willing to pay for their time--most have pick a part solutions as it's cheaper on labour to do it that way since dismantling/sorting/testing is very labour/time intensive.

I bought a few ex manifolds and cats for several cars from other states and shipped into CA when I worked in the auto industry, it just wasn't cheap.

Because good luck getting a decent ex manifold for a 1968 BMW 2002 or 1991 850i from Bavaria and you will soon be so sticker shocked you will pay whatever it takes to get it state-side, especially since one of those cars is smog-exempt and the dealer is charging you every hour your car is taking up a rack waiting for the RO to be completed.

Re: Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring

#305

Post by mieko »

TheLoafOfBread wrote: post #112
oblib wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have to license the buyers and make them account for every lb they recycle by having the serial numbers to compare it. They would have to submit those number as soon as the buy one. If the converter doesn't have one they can't buy it, and setting up stings for that would be pretty easy.

So they will just start selling those converters abroad. Toothless

Your local cat thief does not have connections overseas. This market only exists because domestic purchasers aren't regulated.

Re: Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring

#306

Post by skykooler »

modeless wrote: post #260
judge2020 wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is already a thing in terms of Tesla superchargers being sawed off to be sold for scrap. Copper is pretty valuable. https://electrek.co/2022/02/07/tesla-supercharger-cables-sto...

I wonder if this is part of the reason the new superchargers have liquid cooled cables. Less copper. Also, supercharger cables are way shorter than any other charger.

I guess they can do that because all the cars have the charge port in the same spot.

Re: Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring

#307

Post by mieko »

kelnos wrote: post #64
oblib wrote: post #29

I think taking down the buyers is a the best tool we have right now for this issue. And there are things we could do to make that easier, like putting a serial number on the converter on new cars and replacement parts. Requiring the make, model, and serial number of the car it was removed from, and a web site with a DB that has the ID number of cars they've been stolen from so buyers could check it. Make those who bu…

I don't think serial numbers would help in this case, as the converters are stolen, precious metals extracted, and then those metals are sold. The bit that would likely be stamped with a serial number is likely discarded.

Yeah: Literally make it illegal for shops to possess the platinum or palladium without documentation of provenance.

Unless you're cool with the thefts that are going on, or think any government regulation is "overstepping."

Re: Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring

#308

Post by ineptech »

ThePowerOfFuet wrote: post #300
ineptech wrote: post #298

Treating 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 was the high end, most of 'em cost less than that new.

Re: Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring

#309

Post by vkou »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #276
vkou wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seattle just elected a "hard on crime" Republican prosecutor, who rode in on a wave of promises of prosecuting every misdemeanor, including the backlog (Her opponent was going to prioritize, and drop most of the backlog.) She got into office, paid a lot of money to legal consultants, and a few months later, announced that she will be... Dropping the backlog of misdemeanors.

She gave up on some of the backlog because the evidence was stale and there were bigger fish to fry. It’s not “giving up” rather declaring bankruptcy so you can focus on more current and serious crimes. This is what happens when you are passed a 3 year backlog from your predecessor.

> She gave up on some of the backlog because the evidence was stale and there were bigger fish to fry.

She attacked that exact same line of reasoning when running for election.

Unsurprisingly, once actually elected, as everyone had said all along, it turned out to be the only way to go forward.

And, of course, the promised reductions in crime are, well, not exactly in any hurry to materialize.

On the one hand, it's a plus that she prioritized good sense over dogma, but on the other hand, it's a little strange how her policies are only bad when its the other party that's advocating for them.

Re: Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring

#310

Post by XorNot »

ikiris wrote: post #263
catiopatio wrote: post #160

Earlier 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 .

Do you understand why, or just want to yell at strawmen? Like... meth exists.

To be fair, criminalizing meth (and pretty much all recreational drugs) has always been trying to solve the wrong problem.
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