if you have an OEM cat beware that people are stealing them now and have been for a while.

my girlfriend's S5 GXL was parked behind my shop and the new landlord was ripping down the fence to put up new retaining walls, low and behold when i went to move her car it sounded like a pissed off lawnmower. at least they were courteous enough to unbolt the header flange but destroyed the catback, not like it was welded and took as much effort to remove as the header....

but anyways, ME-OW! time to start capping some bitches.

 

Damn, but people suck.

 

What is so special about them?

 

nooooo,

Broke *** ,wont get a job, always praying on others hard earned personal belongings suck!!

All I have to say is hi to "MR. Springfield Armory XD9 and MR. "THROW AWAY".

They sell it to recycling yards, in some cases depending on the size of the cat and the internal material you can get $15-$80 cash.

BTW...... BMWs carry platinum in their cats. There was a big cat robbery in a dealer in tampa Florida. They took a crap load of cats from the cars on the dealer lot. Netted a little of $3000 a few years ago.

 

more like $100-150 per main cat for these cars.

i'm working on getting the local recyclers to stop purchasing used cats from "walk ins", this should be common sense anyways. but it's probably an uphill battle because they make money on the precious metals, people have been stealing copper wire for years yet recyclers still have no objection to buying it from just anyone. then again if i can find the cat it's obvious it's a match to this particular car as it was cut through the adapter for the main cat which slipped over the exhaust, ie 2 pipes cut at a certain angle and the header flange was unbolted so the length and angles would be just like a fingerprint for this car.

being in posession of stolen merchandise is just as bad as stealing it yourself. the OEM cat costs close to $2k which is well past grand theft(granted i can't even recall what style converter this car originally had, hopefully it was aftermarket and they only get $10 for it...well technically they stole 2 cats, both precat and main).

if i happened to come across someone in process, i honestly won't even mention on this forum what i would do. the police don't give a ****, they took a 10 second police report and we won't hear another word about it, just like the windshield that was vandalized.

i'll probably see if i can contact the ADA for the county, but also doubt they will do much unless it is more widespread than i have heard, usually these things go in phases but this area is severely depressed.

i'm more irritated than anything about the fact that it's going to take me half a day to reverse the damage, not counting cost of a cat which thankfully i actually have a good OE cat for emissions testing purposes lying around. i'm already dumping a few hundred into rebuilding the motor for it, another half day replacing the busted windshield not counting the misc repairs that it needed in the first place.

 

I read this incorrectly and thought you meant the feline kind.
I have one that belongs to my fiancee, you want?

 

no thanks, our current cat just cost me $1k in vet bills for surgery, then this. it's been a shitty week.


by the way, it was cut with a sawzall so good luck defending against it. also had to jack up the vehicle to get at it so even low to the ground cars are not immune as they used to be. trucks used to be the big target for this kind of theft because they wouldn't need to be jacked up to remove it. too bad the incline wasn't steeper, it would be nice to see darwinism in action with a flattened thief under the car when i came outside.

 

god dam i can sell my old cats to the rec for that much **** i must have like 500 in my back yard daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
other than that **** those guys tome to ride low and slow

 

or sell them to people who need them for emissions, it boggles me that people pitch them and cali is clamping down on aftermarket replacement cats so old OEM cats are worth their weight in gold, or well at least in platinum.. save at least one for your own car, sell the rest to the community who got rid of theirs without sense. i have about 5 or so OEM cats and i know they're worth more than recycling fees, look up how much an OEM replacement is and you might crap your pants.

 

Thats why I take mine out!

 

whoever would steal mine would wind up with a hollowed out cat lol

 

My bro got hit three times in his own driveway. They have been all over socal for a few years now. They hit the commuter/park and ride lots like a **** too.

 

Hard times USA strikes again just one more thing to worry about at night. Good thing theres a gun show up here this weekend maybe I can buy some kind of motion sensor turret that pops out of the ground.

On a side note Karack I seny you an email about some work Id like done on my fd. My computer was acting wierd so if you didnt get it let me know.

 

I have heard that the toyota pickup cats were commonly stollen but didn't believe it till one day they took the cat off my dads truck.my dads truck has a lift so it wasn't to hard for them at all.

 

It's not just BMW cats that contain platinum - - the chemical catalyst coating on the honeycomb requires platinum (or palladium and rhodium) in order to work. Platinum is the most commonly used, even though it's expensive, because it lasts longer - - which is why nearly all OEM cats use platinum: they have to provide long warranties on the emissions systems these days.

 

Trucks are the worst because they don't even need to jack up the vehicle. There's a reason I'm working on a full skid for my Jeep. I think I could have the cat out in about 30 seconds otherwise.

 

I will laugh so hard when someone tries to steal mine, it's gutted. On a serious note there are plenty of people getting their cats jacked down here in the Dallas/ft worth area as well.

 

Damn that sucks. People make me sad

 

I imagined cats with ski masks

 

Those are 'cat burglars;' different breed.

 

I hate that ****, they even have had that up here in our area, it's kinda rural so it's surprising. I don't have any cats on my GS but it's lame that people have such a lack of morals these days. All these Toyota trucks and four runners were mainly targeted, because something in the OE Toyota cats makes them more valuable than the others is what I understand.

 

Thats ridiculous. Thanks for the heads up. With Mazda charging exorbitant prices for OEM cats, and California's law requiring each aftermarket replacement cat be made exactly for each model specific car, this would be a pricey fix after having one stolen.

http://mazdatrix.com/e5.htm

 

It's yet another example of laws always having unintended consequences, and every government mandate creating an opportunity for criminals.

 

friend had a 98 4x4 tacoma cat stolen before new years from their work parking lot. ahole wanted the cat so he sawzalled the adjoining pipes, leaving no flanges to drop in a new cat. stealership said $1600 for the 3 sections. another stealership said a 4runner was just repaired for $2700 parts and labor. had to help get a rental car for a day. then, on new years eve, i found a shop to weld in an, IN STOCK, cali carb odb2 cat and an 8 inch pipe section for $300. a lot of shops were closed or closed early on dec 31. returned the rental car at 6pm.

finding the correct cat in stock was hard, since odb2 cats are vehicle specific. cant use a universal weld on, in cali. smog computers show which cat id number is allowed for that vehicle.

also a neighbor had the cat stolen from his 4runner at night. he posted a note warning of the lowlifes in the area on the mailboxes. a neighbor told him his tacoma cat also was stolen at night. all the victims trucks/suv can be crawled under. my friend now has to worry about losing the new cat at home and at work. im thinking they are not looking for weld ons, nor odb2, just oem. i wonder if they have serial numbers.

 

i think the requirement that all cats be oem or odb2 makes the oem cats more valuable. aftermarket toyota cats are available. a carb odb2 weld in is $260 on ebay, a non odb is $110 weld or direct fit. no odb2 direct fit is shown on the first page, too lazy to look further. seems like the law made stolen oem cats on tacomas worth 3x as much, to thieves.