Cat converter theft

[MKIVSupraPower]

Someone should make an alarm system hooked up to air bags, and when it senses someone under the truck when armed.... the alarm gets tripped and the truck will smash these mutha f#*%#$@. That'll be cool. Serves em right.

[mjarla]

A fellow employee in Anaheim had theirs cut out a week ago. I need to figure out a way to make it harder to steel. At least it would discourage the cut and run thieves.

[ToyotaConvert]

It'd be nice if there was some sort of vented skid plate for that area.

[Portugue]

Wow...this is nuts....man people will do anything now huh? How do you protect yourself from that? Have a rottweiler sleep under your truck? I like the airbag idea, trip the sensor and truck drops! haha

[2DaMax]

My roommates 4Runner got hit by the cat thief by Burbank. I hear him coming home one day and it sounded like there is a big hole in his exhaust pipe. When he told me that someone stole the cat on his truck, I couldn't believe what I heard.

I have a 4Runner too, I'm going to have both sides of the cat, spot-welded at the flanges to avoid this from happening.

[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.

[2002Sequioa4WD]

I had mine taken in front of Nordstroms at South Coast Plaza earlier this month. Dude used a saws-all (is that correct) to do it. I have comprehensive insurance, with no deductible somehow, so the $1800 was taken care of - but the inconvenience, it took over a week b/c the insurance company estimators and everything. Thanks for posting about this...any tried and true prevention ideas? My inlaws just purchased a Highlander (2007)...anyone had any cat thefts off of those?

[ttman]

this seems to be happening randomly all ova the US now. I saw news the other day about company vans whose cats were cut off.

[stevegardner1972]

has anyone come up with any solutions to this problem?

[WhiteFang]

I thought - evidently incorrectly - that it was not legal to install a used cat. Now obviously the criminals don't care about legality, but any shop that would install them should. Very interesting thread...

[1bgfshhd]

I just had my cat stolen last night out of my driveway. I have a 95 tacoma which I love 280k plus miles and runs like a champ! They just unbolted it. Has anyone purchased the cages they make to cover them? A company out of Ohio makes them. I have a call into them to find out price.

[visual_image]

My father in-law had his t100 converter hacked off too. He came to visit us in Sac. and had it stolen in front of our house. I'm tempted to put in a surveillance camera for our toyota cars.

[2DaMax]

I don't understand why these people are doing this. An aftermarket cat replacement is around $100! That's what I got after mine had been sawed off as well. And I like the exhaust sound with the new cat. These thieves are not afraid to make all that noise just to steal a cat....pretty bold!

[SoCal4Runner]

Last Thursday afternoon I walked back to my 2002 4Runner with a friend and unknowingly caught thieves in the act! We had parked in a long term covered structure that supposedly had some “security”. We didn’t realize what was going on or that anything was wrong until I started the car and it sounded like the Indy 500 starting line. Suddenly there was a guy whose head popped up. He'd been under my car and I yelled at him and honked the horn. He pretended to be a homeless guy sleeping and we didn’t think too much about him until later. They had cut the rubber things on the sides and removed all of the back bolts, with the front bolts still in place. A very helpful auto repair guy we drove to a few blocks away replaced the bolts so I could get home and recommended getting the connections welded together. Hopefully that will make it a little bit more difficult for these a-holes who are doing this. Looking back on it hopefully the guy went deaf after the noise of the car and my horn. I was lucky they didn't have the saw that's being used. Stealing these things for a couple hundred bucks worth of platinum is ridiculous. I'm interested in any type of security device or car alarm that will deter these thieves. Post back with suggestions, please!!!

[lspower]

good less cats more power, now just add straight pipe.