Understanding the wave of catalytic converter thefts 

A few days ago the local tv news reported the death of a cat thief. He was found crushed under a car after his cheap jack failed.

What’s the bigger crime? Stealing cats or charging $500 for O2 sensors? Wow!

Was a problem here in Maryland a decade ago. It stopped pretty quickly after scrapyards were ordered to collect identification from everyone.

Where I live, Danbury, Connecticut, the scrap yards around here are fighting catcon theft very well by asking anyone who wants to sell a catcon for ID like a driver's license & getting the seller on video. If that were done all over the US, catcon theft would disappear almost immediately

They just found a guy squashed to death under a car here in Va.Beach.. His car had about 10 converters in it.

My father's neighbor had a converter stolen on his car. So he got a converter cage lock thing. I laughed my ass off and told him that was the dumbest thing I ever saw. About 3 months later, they tried to steal his converter. Broke his O2 sensor, beat the cage up, and broke 4 of his windows in retaliation. But he still had his converter.

Mine was stolen yesterday so my 2002 Toyota avalon sounds like a beast (edit) to anyone interested in hearing it i will be posting a video of it on july 17th

Id like to read a headline where a thief gets beaten within an inch of his life by the car owner.

When the EPA starts cracking down on people who mod, this is the video you show them in court. "My cats were stolen your honor, but they were kind enough to weld a straight pipe in it's place.. I don't know why sir, crazy criminals..."

This is a tip for the homeowners. Clean up the crap from the garage, and park your car inside the garage.

We submitted to our local Sheriff video of theives, stealing Cats from our fleet. We have face, and lic plate video. Turns out the sheriff knows an aweful lot of who they are, but the DA refuses to sign off on the arrest. California sucks.

thief arrives at scrap yard: Scrap yard guy: "hello what've you got?" thief: "some aluminum cans, some glass bottles, a couple ounces of palladium...oh and some steel tubing." scrap yard guy: "wait a minute....WE DON'T TAKE GLASS HERE!!"

The penalty for this needs to be severe enough to deter it from happening.

If you see someone doing this, Kick Out The Jack.

I'm disappointed that they arent refered to as cat burglars.

I work directly with cat convs and we're pretty sure we're seeing theft at the distribution level somewhere after shipping. We KNOW the parts we ship, yet every day we have shortage claims. It's theft. Whether from people along the chain or the customers themselves trying to pocket extra money. It's insane right now.

Such a joy to hear and see Brian Cooley again.

I remember living in asia that they used to steal manhole covers for the steel. Bloody scary at night riding my motorbike.

Man. Folks who been straight piping their Hellcats have been waaaay ahead of us all!

Assign theft detectives at the places that buy these metals, this is ridiculous, people need to be prosecuted.

When it costs 2000$ in CA but 250$ in NV, it’s now wonder they get stolen

A local muffler shop in California near me was caught with 1,000s of stolen catalytic converters. My cat had been stolen as well from my used car, which I didn't have for very long. It was my first car, and I got quoted up to $1,800 - $2,400 to repair it. Also, it is California so there are super strict EPA laws, and we use a special CARB catalytic converter which makes it that much more expensive. No aftermarket replacements and you can only get the cat from a dealer. And, my specific year and model did not have any cats registered that fit my car. 2003 Honda Accord LX, 4 cylinders. Thank you very much, cat thieves. Had to sell the car for a HUGE loss. Of course, I didn't expect to make money from the car, but I only drove the car around 7,000 miles since I had bought it. Did a ton of maintenance and repairs on the car just to have it all screwed by some low-life thief. It sucks.

Also these scumbags are unlikely to jack up your car from the exact jacking point so can likely do more damage..

The thefts of catalytics has been on the rise like crazy in my little neighborhood in OKC. It's ridiculous! The thefts of these catalytics are what got us to this video because we didn't know what catalytics was or why they're being stolen.

A few weeks ago I made a screen protecting the CC and muffler on my sons Prius made from materials I bought from Home Depot for about $40. The basic screen is made from material used to reinforce concrete walkways. Two layers covering the length from the CC to the end of the muffler and still having some left over material an additional layer over the CC. I don't have a welder, so to attach to the frame, I used Simpson straps and 25 screws. After installing I used epoxy to cover the screw heads. It is not fancy, but does allow visual check of the CC for the smog check. To get to the CC, either a bolt cutter or power saw is required to cut through all of the layers, it can be done but it will take time, make more noise, and the car needs to be jacked up higher to get additional clearance. When seeing the screen the crook will probably look elsewhere for a easier target. Three hours and $40 in a effort to save a thousand or more.

O caught a thieve doing it to my neighbor car I remembered he tried getting out we lowered the jack just enough the he got stuck waited for the cops got there it was an old Honda civic cops took him they said he had 9 of them in his truck

I lived in Berkeley and San fran for a couple years. I was always happy without a car in SF. So much theft, broken windows and outrageous parking costs.

I'm sure all the mechanics are just heartbroken about these thefts.

So what are we paying the police and the FBI for? They can't work down the supply list of these precious metals!?

I just sold my Prius cats to the recycling center for $1400. If you own a gen 2 Prius, take off your cats and sell them, then install after market ones for $100. Easy money

Catalytic converter thefts come and go. It was a big trend a few years ago.

This video was so informative that I think it may actually increase cat thefts.

They’re gonna be pissed if they steal mine off my Jeep and realize it’s empty

Simple explanation is that they are too expensive to replace and police/judges need to keep these criminals off the streets

Plot twist: it was the guy running the muffler shop having the cats stolen thus becoming the most successful man in the city.

So, from this video, you've told the thieves how to cut them off and what vehicles to get them from. Niiiiiice...

The fix is at the recycling centers that give cash for these converters. A friend told me between 2 people recycling converters the total payout was like 20 grand with no questions asked. While another place wanted to finger print you. The secret for the theif is finding the no questions asked place which I'm pretty sure isn't very hard as word spreads quickly.

Cody lab once showed that you can harvest those metals from the highways were it deposits from all of the cars on the road.

I like how he casually mentions the precious metals, and how much they cost.

Make the metal recyclers who buy them pay for new replacements and installation costs!

I wonder if these thefts have anything to do with a revolving door release program for criminals at least here in Los Angeles County.

Us and Uk mainly, no proper laws to ban trade with scrap metals from car parts . It will get worse. Btw in Uk been reported number of cases of stolen charger cables from ev cars while on charge. This is the next. Just watch

Just as a sidenote creating an under body plate for your car actually helps the aerodynamics under the car flow smoother so this is something you would kind of want to do anyway but you also need to think about cooling these parts as well

My car needed a catalytic converter to pass smog here in Cali and the cheapest quote I got was $900 for the job or $500 just for the part. Looked up online and they were $125 but they won't deliver to CA or NY. I ordered it and had it shipped to a friend who lives in Reno and he sent it to me. Looked up on RU-vid how to install it and it was surprisingly a very easy job! I had to buy a gasket from the dealer though for $25 so the whole thing cost me $150....and since then I do the fixing myself the latest was replacing a thermostat in my radiator which cost me 6 bucks when mechanics were asking $150...All without any mechanical training thanks to RU-vid and some forums online where mechanic are there just to help folks like me out of the goodness of their hearts 💚

I work at a dealership and we had 5 catalytic converters stolen from our customers vehicles. They tried to take one off a f250 6.7 diesel but gave up on it. They damaged it so bad we had to replace it. Cost about $7k to replace that one.

The hot lead from a fence zapper to the car frame gets their attention every time.. :D

I live in Austin, my roomate had his cat stolen, my work truck and another company truck, the shop had at least 10 trucks in for the same thing. This is ridiculous.

A teacher at my school (circa 2014) had her CAT stolen. Caught on camera. She took it as a teaching lesson as to why they were invented. Love you Ms. Aloucie!

That dude that runs the muffler shop should be suspect #1, he seemed real nervous during the interview... I'm on to him

I remember back when glass shops where going around breaking windshields. 😂

Dude is killing it ,charging $500 for an oxygen sensor!,

I forgot about detachable audio plates!!! Man, that brings me back to the 90s and Crutchfield magazine.

I remember 20ish years ago it was airbags out of Mustangs. Good info sir! Many thanks.

Wow, I remember Brian from CNET, brings me back sooo many amazing memories of my early 20s hearing his voice omg. But I can't believe he still looks the same!

I live in a small town in Mexico I tought this was a local problem, but obviosly there must be a big business behind it.

Thanks for showing me how easy it is to steal this, and how valuable this part is worth. I promise I might... Ugh won't steal! Yes won't steal one of these now.. let me watch this again btw.. take notes. 😎

Ima UPS driver and remember 5yrs ago when this started. A recycle co. would buy these from people no questions asked, some cats were still warm! Where there's a market, there's a thief.

I had two left over from an exhaust upgrade. The metal recycling spot only gave my $8 each. I guess I got ripped off, lol.

That's the best sounding Prius I've ever heard!

I got stolen from my RV a few days ago, it was parked inside of storage parking lot and I could not believe it. Now, my insurance is not happy, and fix it cost a lot of money. I bought it a couple of weeks ago. Be careful.

The real problem is the justice system will just let them go on probation and then call you a racist for calling 911 when all the thug was doing was expressing himself.

Happened to my Gen 2 2008 Prius in London TWICE recently.

Turns out all the stole cats end up in.... you guessed it, the muffler shop. “ Hey Mike! Get me cat for that silver Prius from 3rd street, he’s here!”

It looks like more people know someone that got their cat stolen versus having Covid.

The first wave of this back in 2010- we just cut them off ourselves because some crack head was going to do it anyway lmfao

Around 2 weeks ago in California, they busted a guy's house who had $42,000 worth of catalytic converters in his home, and found another $70,000 worth in another house.

Park over broken glass and thumb tacks. You're welcome.

I had mine stolen, recently. Was not too concerned when my check engine light went on because it has done that before and it was my gas cap that I did not put on correctly. But this time, a short while after my light started coming on my engine started roaring when I tried to drive. A man purchasing it got under the car and showed me his photo of my converter being stolen. I ended up giving him the car because it was old and I had already purchased another car. Needless to say, I park my new car in the garage where there are cameras.

*Thanks a lot you just gave everyone a tutorial on how easy it is tho steal my catalytic converter*

This is why I just got a catless downpipe lol

They should set up a “Miami Vice” type operation to catch the perps! ...because Don Johnson 🤣

"How to get 'em to take someone else's". You speak the truth! Respect.

I recently had to replace my own cat and when I took the old one to a scrap yard they were all over me needing title and proof of ownership. Where the hell are people taking these things?

You can thank the federal government for the push in impossible mileage and emissions standards that has tripled your cost as a consumer to maintain your car.

A skid plate also helps with aerodynamics, so there's that.

In the 70's and 80's, the target was Rally Wheel centers and rings that came on everything from a Camaro to a Corvette. I had a set stolen and was insured by Allstate at the time. They had a guy out of Atlanta that supplied replacements for ones that were stolen, call me. He told me that at that time he was doing $250,000 a month in insurance claim replacements.

I didn't really hear a great solution to preventing this. I guess it falls on manufacturers to make design changes so that it takes too long or is too hard to steal the catalytic converter.

Really like this guy what a great voice excellent presenter

I don't even have a car, yet I'm watching this vid for Brian Cooley!

I’d love to see a thief’s face when he tries to steal my catalytic converter and realizes it’s just a 3 inch pipe all the way back

My neighbor owns a muffler shop. Business has increase 1000%. He just opened another shop last month due to the increase in demand. He says, he will hire more people to steal converters to generate more business. Stolen cats are useless.

Etching the Vin number on to the catalytic is probably the best idea, there’s no single dealer including someone in the black market who wants the authorities to catch them with catalytic‘s with someone’s Vin number on it or even worse a scratched off one to screw up their entire operation

Disappointment in society is immeasurable and faith in humanity ruined

These thefts are everywhere , a small town close to me was freaking out due to the loss of converters and said they could not solve the crimes. I advised one cop I knew to have someone cut off an extra say 1/2 inch of pipe from the missing location and when they found the sellers with the stolen converters they could prove it came off the unit.

I just engraved "WARNING: AFRICANIZED KILLER BEES" on mine and so far, so good.

as long as you have comprehensive auto insurance this type of theft will be covered

I've seen places that are engraving your plate number on the converter. That in "MY" opinion is no good, because the outer heat shield can be removed.

if it’s palladium, they’re probably making ironman’s energy core LOL

Had two of my economic cars parked in front of my office and went to start them up and had a race car. 😂

Coolest sounding prius ever

I still use The Club on my 2001 Honda Accord! Hasn't been stolen yet.....

This is only continually happening because they are not going after the salvage yards who buy them

Nice to see you wearing a poppy 🇬🇧👍

Finally a Prius sounds how it looks 😩🤣😭

This has been going on for the last 30 years

love that they show you how to do it

My neighbor just had his stolen right off his 2005 CRV, right in his driveway.

the question is who is buying them from the thieves…..

This is actually known as catalytic converter season. Starts up around the same time every year.

Great video. Just got my 2005 Honda Accord cat stolen in Foster City CA. Repair cost estimate was 3.5K, and no parts in stock.