Earlier quoted context omitted.
A tesla model 3 battery weighs over 1000lbs
They are able to lift whole car in a daylight to steal a catalytic converter. 500kg battery is nothing.
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Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring
471–480 of 487 posts
Re: Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring
#472Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hackers in the sense that HN uses the term have never been a monoculture. "Government" isn't a monolithic concept either. Some is good but some is not. Plenty of hackers, for instance, supported the creation of the EPA. I know plenty of permaculture hackers and mycologist hackers who very much want the government regulating pollutants and safety.
Heh, I guess when you abuse a term all the time it eventually becomes meaningless.
The hacker ethos is not limited to computers. The medium doesn't matter. It can be programming or gardening or art or body modification or whatever. The important part of 3 the experimental, curious, often "hacked together" nature of the projects combined with a sort of joy in discovery. Stallman has, for instance, called out particular poets and musicians as hackers.
Re: Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring
#473Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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…
Stolen summer of 2020 and 1 month ago. I guess I got lucky with supply avoiding 2021. Yes, Geico insurance covered both of them as I had comprehensive for $21 / 6 months, with high $500 deductible (bills were $2.5k and $3k). My rates didn't go up either (truly don't know what Geico actuaries are doing here). Yes, I could sell it, but ultimately there's no better value until EV's are cheaper in a few years. It's an $8…
> Did you encounter any research on what the best shield would be? I still haven't re-shielded it.
Lots, but as you an infer things have hanged sine '21, I think the best thing to do is go bak and read these threads [0], [1] and see what is available that has a peek window so you don't have to take it off when you do visual inspection for your smog test. And how the rattle mods were done, people were stuffing hokey pucks at one point.
Here is an example of what is happening in the bay area as you well know[2].
I wish I had the time to delve into it more, but sine I passed on getting the supply and scrapped my gen 2 it's not really the time-investment to see where an opportunity exists sine Toyota has been able to get more cats on the shelf, albeit it high mark-ups and some delays.
I hope you can keep yours on the road despite this streak of thefts, as they are utilitarian-speaking a solid car.
0: https://priuschat.com/threads/catshield-vs-catsecurity-catal...
1: https://priuschat.com/threads/best-catalytic-converter-anti-...
2: https://priuschat.com/threads/2013-prius-catalytic-converter...
Re: Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring
#474Earlier quoted context omitted.
> but we definitely have intruded on Joe's freedom to buy and sell cats No we haven't. Joe is free to resell converters, provided he proves he obtained them legally, which is trivial _if_ you obtained them legally.
Oh, so now Joe is guilty until proven innocent? Nice!
Laws requiring you to provide paperwork don't make you guilty until proven innocent. And there are a lot of laws like that (filing your tax return anyone?).
Re: Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring
#475Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Joe is free to resell converters, provided ... ... an increased burden over private sales of other goods (and over existing standards for sales of catalytic converters), which quite literally constitutes an "intrusion."
There is quite literally a difference between selling a cat to your friend and selling it to a business that makes money liquidating cats (this sentence is actually humorous if you dont know what cat is short for...). I have no interest in stopping Joe from selling to Bob, or going on craigslist and selling his wares if he, for some reason, has figured out a way to manufacturer with rare earth metals in his garage. T…
> Worse yet, it's not a one time cost and these criminals, undeterred, will simply return to steal the new one as well.
(Some?) modern catalytic converters have much less rare earth minerals, making them less (not?) profitable to steal.
> this sentence is actually humorous if you dont know what cat is short for...
Your parent comment had me thinking you were making a weird cat analogy until the cutting part.
Re: Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring
#476Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is backwards. Do you have data to prove that police are responding to all stolen property reports?
How is this backwards? Person made a claim that the government provided data is inaccurate. You can't make those claims unless you provide data.
No, they very specifically wrote:
> When the cops don’t show up to take a report it doesn’t show up in crime report statistics.
This is accurate. You appear to be arguing that the reporting is commensurate with actual crime. You haven't provided any evidence of that.
Re: Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring
#477Earlier quoted context omitted.
The emissions inspections things were important during the late 70s-80s when they were really badly done on the American cars (you could disconnect the "smog pump" and get a better running engine). This is where the diesel exemption came from - trucks had nothing much at all (and I don't think they started adding cats for quite awhile, as dirty diesel (non-low-sulfur) was very common and would kill a cat faster than…
A friend, who is a diesel mechanic, just went through the diesel emissions timeline with me very recently. EGR valves -> DPFs -> DEF I understand the necessity of these systems, but it seems like they are incredible fragile (the DPFs on VWs are prone to cracking and new ones are more than the average cat). I also understand why people do DPF deletes...
EGR and DPF on diesels are just trash and will be for the foreseeable future barring some yet unknown development in materials science. DEF, while another obnoxious consumable is pretty problem free by comparison
Re: Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring
#478Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wow. I should see whether there is a way to determine how much this catalytic converter is worth before selling it off to the scrapyard so I don't get ripped off. If there is no ETA on when a new converter for your vehicle will be available are you not able to drive the vehicle at all? Is there no temporary option that can make it road-legal until the replacement arrives? It seems like an exception should be federall…
Indeed, I can't (legally) drive it at all. The registration has expired and it is due for a smog check, which automatically fails with no cat. Mine is an E450; There are a several companies that make an after-market cat for an E350 with the same engine. I contacted them and got roughly the same response from each: > Unfortunately we do not have a catalytic converter for your vehicle. Although it may seem that the veh…
This is probably the reason for all the fleet vehicles available in auctions that have no catalytic converter because theirs was stolen. The municipality or company that owned them found out that replacements would be nearly impossible to get so they opted to sell at a loss to someone who could afford to wait or who operated in a different state where OE replacement catalytic converters are okay for use. I believe that California and Colorado have banned converters that do not come from the manufacturer, effectively preventing anyone who had theirs stolen from using the vehicle legally even though aftermarket units are available that meet 50-state requirements.
Good luck. It may be an option for you to sell the E450 to an out-of-state buyer and replace it with a used or new vehicle. I don't know whether you can make that work for yourself.
Re: Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring
#479Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is it seriously your working model of police that they’re frequently given lists of people who download apps and instructed to kill them? That’s how you believe policing works? I know the BLM astroturfing had a profound effect on the rest of the internet, but it’s disappointing to see such a skewed version of reality presented here on HN. I just downloaded the app. Bring on the marauders. If they end up blasting me,…
It is an accurate model that police frequently bust down the doors of people who are suspected of a crime based only on a third party's report, and not because of any investigation or probable cause. It's also accurate that police are trained to escalate extremely quickly, including the use of lethal force. And it's accurate that policing has a culture of unapologetic lethal force.
One would have to have their head in the sand the last couple years to have not heard these kind of stories. I'd hope that people on this site would still be able to infer that legally downloading an app isn't enough to trigger that kind of response in literally any US jurisdiction.
The world is a scary place, cops can be bastards, and terrible things have happened, but it's straight up hyperbole and nonsense to pretend that a random internet nerd is going to get killed by police because they downloaded an app. I downloaded it (it's crap, as expected), so if I'm wrong on this then I'm willing to face the music, yet somehow I think I'll sleep fine at night.
Re: Justice Department announces takedown of catalytic converter theft ring
#480Earlier quoted context omitted.
This new procedure and equipment is partially rolled out at TSA checkpoints across the US, has been for a couple of years now. The agent's computer shows the flight information. No reason to have an extra step to scan a boarding pass since the computer pulls it all up anyways. To get through TSA as a member of the general public, you have to have a ticket (or a non-traveler gate pass) in your real name (matching your…
Now you aren't being tracked. Say you've done a crime that will be discovered in a few days. You buy a ticket to Detroit and next week the fbi will be wasting its time looking for you in Michigan and trying to convince Canada to search for you in Ontario. In reality you hopped on a flight to El Paso under a fake name and you are deep into Mexico by now.
Wouldn’t it be pretty obvious you never actually boarded your flight to Detroit? They scan your ticket when you board.
Though totally agree you could fly on a different flight under a fake name assuming that the airlines don’t sync up their records with the IDs the TSA scans at the checkpoints.
I suspect there’s other less visible signals that would make this harder. For example your flight under a fake name might be flagged for being an unknown name/person. Also if you’re on the run it’s hard to buy a flight under a fake name anonymously without a paper trail back to yourself.