Has your catalytic converter/rims/ badges ever been stolen off your car?

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Equivalent-Carry-419@reddit

I didn’t know that stealing badges could be lucrative. Which ones are stolen most and how much do they get for them?

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Stealing catalytic converters is pretty trivial if you don't care what happens to the car. My daughter-in-law had her stolen while parked at a grocery store. They look for a certain model, drive up, lift the car with jacks, saw it off, drop the car down, and then are gone. It takes less than a few minutes, and a lot of people look the other way as "not my problem, not my business." If they even know what they are witnessing. "Huh. I wonder what those guys are doing?" Even if you have video footage, the police usually tell you it's an insurance issue, or "we're aware of those guys. Watch your car, lady." It's less common than it used to be, because manufacturers have gotten wise to bad resales, and have started putting serial numbers on them to trace the owners and the crimes.

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hippee-engineer@reddit

You don’t need a jacket and for most of their targets. These are opportunists we’re talking about. You see two viable target cars, one requires a jack and the other one doesn’t. You pick the one that requires the least amount of work and tools.

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SignificantEarth814@reddit

It takes about 3.5 seconds to cut through a pipe with a battery powered oscillating saw. I'm sure the bystander effect is what keeps these people doing what they do.

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Siptro@reddit

You slide under the car with a battery saw. Spend MAYBE 10mins hacking off the mounts and you’re done. No one calls the cops. No one asks you what you’re doing because people love to mind their own shit. And living in a complex with 1000 others furthers that “mind your own shit” mindset. Look at my great city of Chicago. You could mug someone and people just keep walking by. Minding their own business

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hippee-engineer@reddit

>10 minutes No way. An unprotected cat and a battery powered Milwaukee sawzall or cutting wheel is less than 2 minutes of work, and that’s if I take a 1 minute break to smoke more meth.

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Smart_History4444@reddit

Catalytic converters??? lol what are those yeah it does happen people come with a saw and cut it off at night and sell them for decent amount of money because the material inside is worth alot. As for you, well it’s going to be expensive unfortunately to replace the catalytic converter. Maybe go through insurance if possible? Rims are also sometimes stolen on higher more valuable models. That’s why I have bolt locks on my rims. Never knew people stole badges for a living lol

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hippee-engineer@reddit

Those supply chains that thieves were using to make money off of catalytic converters have been closed off. It’s illegal to sell a used catalytic converter to another person, and the large junk yards that were looking the other way and buying them anyways have been sent to prison over it. There might still be people stealing them, but they’ll stop soon enough once they realize they can’t fence them like they did a few years ago. There also might still be people buying them, but finding a buyer is no longer as easy as going to the nearest junkyard.

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Walksuphills@reddit

None of the above. I did have a license plate torn off the back. I imagine just for kicks, since they left the front plate. At least the replacement was free with a form from the police department.

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wallaceant@reddit

Sometime around 1987, the front VW badge off my 1971 super beetle was stolen out of the parking lot at Christian summer camp.

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GuairdeanBeatha@reddit

The thieves use a battery powered reciprocating saw and really sharp blades. The alarm on my pickup didn’t go off until the thief banged the saw against something and it made noise. We were spending the night at a hotel and the theft was caught on their cameras. It only took a couple of minutes from the time the car stopped until they took off. The only thing that will protect catalytic converters from thieves is a good set of shields. The thieves will move on to the next victim if you make it difficult.

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IWillAssFuckYou@reddit

Off my car, no. If anyone were to steal anything from my car, they'd try to the whole car instead because it's a Camaro which is known to be easy to steal. I work at a grocery store and a few years back my coworker had his catalytic converter stolen on his SUV while he was working (from 2 pm - 10 pm).

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GuairdeanBeatha@reddit

I have a professionally installed alarm with glass breakage on my pickup. It didn’t help. They’re well practiced at cutting the catalytic converters off without making enough noise to trigger the alarm.

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IWillAssFuckYou@reddit

It depends on what you have. My Compustar system is pretty sensitive and has many sensors like a lift and tilt sensor as well (not just glass breakage as that's definitely not gonna cut it) and you can set how sensitive it is. In fact it was set too sensitive that I had difficulty with simple vibration from a car passing was enough to trigger the alarm.

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b787665@reddit (OP)

What kind of anti-theft devices? How do they work, does it set off a car alarm or just send the notification to your phone?

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IWillAssFuckYou@reddit

I have two really. So one's just a simple starter kill that requires a separate fob that needs a button to be pressed to start the car in case if thief managed to program a key (which can be done under 1 minute if the OBD port is in its normal easily accessible place, which mine has been moved) The other one is a Compustar and this is what I was talking about. It's a system that I got installed for over $1000 and it can only be installed by a shop. It has many sensors such as a shock sensor (for the car being hit or window smashed), tilt sensor, lift sensor, towing sensor, etc. and has a pretty loud alarm that goes off if such events occur. When that alarm goes off I get an instant notification sent to my phone. For it to send the notification to the phone, it uses an app called DroneMobile and it requires a $10/month or $120/year subscription as it works over LTE.

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BadWolfRU@reddit

By some stupid tik-tok trends I got all 4 valve stem covers stolen two times in a month

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justolazy@reddit

Not yet, but there's been a few people eyeing my car. Little do they know I have full coverage, dash cam, and like two or three cameras on that suckker 😅

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Total_Roll@reddit

Love the viral video where two guys catch two dudes stealing their cat and pelted them with paintball guns.

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IntheOlympicMTs@reddit

My entire truck was stolen then found a couple weeks later on a logging road stripped of stereo, wheels, tools, cat, a 5th of jager I had behind the seat, and they even ate a package of M&Ms leaving the wrapper on the seat. Oh and the siphoned all the gas out of the tank.

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Icy-Tough-1791@reddit

Had my converter stolen and my car was parked right in front of my house. I have two dogs and they didn’t hear anything. I learned that an Acura can make a whole lot of noise with a big gaping hole in the exhaust.

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Longjumping_Stock971@reddit

I had the exhaust stolen off my 1 ton Ford. Dpf cat all that fancy shit for the DEF system. It cost $6800 for Ford to replace the exhaust. Next time I'll shoot shovel and shut up.

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right415@reddit

How? One word. Methamphetamine.

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canadianbiggane@reddit

I used to jack them myself haha.. but a couple civil suits later im reformed. If it ever happens to you you can rent one out at any junkyard until you get a replacement

Has your catalytic converter/rims/ badges ever been stolen off your car?

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25 Comments

Equivalent-Carry-419@reddit

punkwalrus@reddit

hippee-engineer@reddit

SignificantEarth814@reddit

Siptro@reddit

hippee-engineer@reddit

Smart_History4444@reddit

hippee-engineer@reddit

Walksuphills@reddit

wallaceant@reddit

GuairdeanBeatha@reddit

IWillAssFuckYou@reddit

GuairdeanBeatha@reddit

IWillAssFuckYou@reddit

b787665@reddit (OP)

IWillAssFuckYou@reddit

BadWolfRU@reddit

justolazy@reddit

Total_Roll@reddit

IntheOlympicMTs@reddit

Icy-Tough-1791@reddit

Longjumping_Stock971@reddit

right415@reddit

canadianbiggane@reddit

mrpaul57@reddit