[CrouchingBruin]

Just had mine stolen from my '93 4Runner early Friday morning as it sat in my driveway. Must have occurred between midnight (when I last drove the truck) and 7AM, when I loaded it up for a trip up to Pismo. Thought I had dropped my muffler, but when I looked underneath the muffler was still there, and a foot & a half long section was missing between the engine exhaust & the muffler.

At least they did it cleanly -- the four bolts and a bracket were lying on the driveway. It's somewhat disheartening to find out how easy it is to steal.

8/20/07 - Update:
Called El Segundo PD this morning to file a report, and it turns out they had caught the guys with three cat converters in their trunk; two of them were for 4Runners. They were able to match one of them to it's owner 'cause he said he had accidentally made a scratch on his when he installed it. They released mine to me after matching up the rust & wear patterns.

They suggested having a muffler shop spot-weld it after bolting it back on; apparently most of the thieves use wrenches rather than saws.

There have been a rash of thefts all over the area since earlier this year. One guy had his stolen while parked in a Denny's parking lot in the middle of the day. Another lady had hers stolen while it was parked at the mall. Some people have had multiple thefts. One guy, after a couple of thefts, had rebar molded & installed with a circle around the cat converter.

ESPD also suggested having my drivers license number etched on mine, so if it ever gets stolen & recovered again, the police know who to contact. That's the problem with a lot of these thefts: the police will come across a batch of cat converters, but because they don't have any sort of ID on them, they can't prove that they were stolen; the thieves just say that they bought them all.