It got so bad in my city that cops started planting bait Silverado's and F250's with trackers installed in the cats. I believed it worked, because converter theft basically vanished.
@@Darkfyre755 Here it got to the point that they stopped failing smog due to missing cat. There were 10-15 stolen a day. A guy that I know got hit 3 times in a month. I got hit once and welded on a guard for my Silverado. We had a dealership get 20 robbed over night.
I recently fell victim to this. My vehicle I've had since high school that's survived two wrecks and almost 20 years on the road was totaled by the insurance because the thieves caused additional damage to the car when they were trying to cut the cat out
Just buy the car back from the insurance company with a salvaged title, repair it, and get a rebuilt title for it and keep driving it. That's what I did when someone totaled my first vehicle while it was completely drivable still and I was able to fix it myself for a few hundred dollars.
I work at a public school and had to borrow my parent's SUV while my car was in the shop. I finish my shift around 6:00pm, go to start the car, only to find that the cat had been stolen. Wide open parking lot, cameras everywhere, still daylight, on government property, and it still got stolen. Worse yet we never caught the guy. These thieves are crazy!
@@NathanielJames-jk5td Vote democrat. They think if you eliminate poverty noone will steal your cats. Because democrats have a solution while MAGAs only whine.
@@NathanielJames-jk5td There's a big difference between thinking something _causes_ theft and that something _excuses_ it. No sane Democrat is out there saying we should be nice to the poor catalytic converter thieves. They're saying that, in addition to the traditional policing and justice system (both of which could use other reforms, of course), we should be trying to reduce poverty, both because that's the right thing to do in the first place, and because people with well-paying jobs and stable finances don't tend to steal car parts for junkyard money.
@@RyanToshor, without it being a detriment to our pockets, we could selectively employ more policing in high risk neighbourhoods, which has been branded as racial profiling.
I live in my Prius while traveling the country and When I’m not in nature Or on the road I’ll sleep in the city. One night I woke up to the jack being put under my car. I instantly knew what was going on and laid on my horn. They ran off and drove away, leaving the jack, the saw, and a half empty 40 next to my passenger rear door. Thank you for the tools and the drink thieves
I was a U-Haul transfer driver. The amount of cats that were stolen were amazing. We'd transfer those trucks and have to keep the window down while we drove otherwise the exhaust fumes would build up in the truck cab. These trucks were so loud, I'd have to block my ears while driving. Sounded like a brick in a trashcan rolling down a cliff multiplied by 20
U-Haul transfer driver= You'd drive a particular U-Haul owned vehicle from 1 U-Haul location to another for whatever reasons? Just curious is all, thanks.
@@mongolikechewchew2475 If you get a bunch of people who move out of, say, Shithole California and move to Paradise Texas, eventually you'll end up with 5,000 U-Hauls in Texas. Someone has to take a bunch back to the lion's den.
@@davelowets cost of living. I have a friend who is a nurse and lived her whole life in CA. Loved it there. Housing costs are just too high which also means taxes are too high on those houses. She got a job in TX making the same money but housing and associated costs are way less.
I'm an apprentice mechanic up in Canada and we deal with this a few times a week, one thing you forgot to mention before you drive to the mechanic is to make sure they didn't also cut a fuel line or anything else significant. A lot of the cut cats we deal with are rushed like you mentioned which usually mean its done like butcher work and the exhaust is rarely the only thing cut!
I was homeless build myself up and started a company . Was hit with someone stealing my catalytic converter off my work truck. Sucks... I know they don't care what I went through, but many people are suffering from this crime.
Reminds me of the night me and my buddy caught a converter thief. My friend lit him up and I racked the shotgun. The guy didn’t seem to happy to be staring down the barrel of my 12 gauge. He tried to roll away until I smashed him in the nuts with my steel toe boots. We cuffed him to a light pole and called the cops, they didn’t seem to concerned that we kinda “ worked him over” before they got there. I work hard for my money too and I’ll gladly mess somebody up for trying to take what I worked for for free. The next guy who tries to rob me might get “ the casino” cheaters justice punishment
In my area, all scrap yards require a valid ID, and they all communicate with each other to count a total number of catalytic converters associated to the id
When I was in school in Hartford, someone got crushed by a prius while trying to steal the Cat from a car in my dorm parking lot. They found a body pinned under a prius the next morning with a jack, a sawzall and mostly empty bottle of hooch.
@@marcperis7610 here in corpus christi I know an officer that had a gun pulled on him when he confronted a guy stealing a cat in broad daylight. The guys buddy came around from the other side of the car and pulled a gun on the cop so the cop shot his ass. And no he didn't live. Win for the good guys.The end.
The reason that Prius and other hybrids are targeted isn't because their precious metals "aren't being use up". Its because they had more of the precious metals to begin with. A hybrid like a Prius needs a "stronger" catalytic converter compared to most vehicles its size and power. This is because a hybrid vehicle might need Wide Open Throttle (WOT) before the cat has had a chance to heat up, since the car could be driven under EV power. A hybrid's cat has to be able to work cold, while a normal vehicle's cat won't have to do that kind of work until it has warmed up. The cat on a Prius has a similar amount of precious metals as the cat on a large pickup.
That makes sense why, when your ride is getting its smog check, it has to be at operating temperature. If the cat isn't as effective at ambient temperature, then it'd need a "warm up" period, as you described, else, it'd give a false High HC reading.
I didn't think the precious metals were getting used up either. I have an '88 Ford Ranger with 180,000+ miles on it and it still passes emissions. PLUS it says catalytic, a catalyst in a reaction is not used up.
Except car manufacturers have stupid weight adding systems like smog pumps. Maybe a Prius doesnt have one, maybe toyota called it something else, but my 2000 malibu had one and all it really achieved was adding 15lbs to the vehicle. Basically during the 'warm up' period after starting the engine cold a blower pumps fresh air into the exhaust stream, at each freaking valve, so the cat has fresh O2 allowing it to get hotter faster. After the cat is up to temp though, it shuts off and just sits there.....wasting fuel via added weight.....😒 luckily I think it was a failed anti-smog experiment because my current kia, exgfs versa, my parents f150 triton and subarus dont have them.....good riddance..... Besides, a single cat, regardless of the vehicle it came off of has miniscule precious metals in them. Most of the cat theft was ultimately leading to a scheme by precious metals reclamation facilities that were ran by shady peeps importing cats by the container load.
@@benpero6510 they make widebody kits for the prius, and yeah its a $2K kit that you have to install yourself, or have someone else install, but i would gladly have a prius with that bodykit
Has happened to me twice. I finally got the cat shield on mine. Thank you for mentioning this and I hope more people will take getting this shield into consideration.
Great video explanation! I wish people would stop stealing peoples catalytic converters. It makes me angry that thieves are violating peoples belongings and it’s not a cheap fix. Obviously they don’t care what they do to others, they just care about the money.
Its people flooding into the country with NO skills to care for them selves..so they Feed of the working people getting 1/4 of what what a replacement CC costs
"If OEM started putting VINS on cats however, then it would help" So Dodge doing the same thing with body panels on their cars back then WASNT totally obsolete like I was lead to believe in Gone in 60 Seconds (1973)
Won't help at all in this case. Do you not even know what they are doing with the cats? Lol. They are opening them up and salvaging whatever precious metals they can that are inside the cat.
Won't stop a junkie in the end. Serializing parts is worthless when they part contains precious metals. Because to get all the precious metals out efficiently you use chemicals. Mainly certain acids. This strips the gold, platinum, silver, etc. from the rest of the part. Then once all your metals are at the bottom of your acidic bath you put it into a homemade propane furnace and flux them together. With a thermostat you can easily seperate the metals. Getting you all the useable metal worth value is cheap, easy and efficient. This is popular amongst the meth crowd. Especially since its a quick turnaround time and is virtually untraceable. All that's needed is some proper plastic tupperware, some hardware store acids, a propane tank from a grill and a Sawzall to crudely remove the cat converter. You don't even need industrial grade acids. Acids taken from household chemicals can get the job done. Once you get some extra money you can upgrade to proper industrial grade acid. Plus you can clean it and reuse it, so you don't need to worry about constantly disposing of, or buying the acid needed. Don't have a furnace? Well its easy to build one cheap with some kiln/furnace bricks, a propane tank and cheap blower attachment. You can cheaply add a temperature probe to make the process a little more exact when it comes to fluxing the metal in the furnace to easily seperate it.
When I sold the old Catalytic converter off my Impreza to a scrapyard they took my picture and made a copy of my drivers license and they made me show some proof of ownership (I showed them the receipt for my new cat)
Reminds me of when I lived in Paris and had my GPS stolen. I looked in ads and saw a guy selling 6 different GPS. Scrapyards know if someone comes in every day with a bunch of catalytic converters. I'm glad your guy checked.
Shop, "Why is there blood under the car??" Me : "Dude tried to steal the cat, got crushed" Me: "I want it clear coated... it's about sending a message"
Lmao thas y ive always said thas y dope heads are skinny... can u imagine a fat guy tryna steal a prius cat?! 😂😂 walk out side look down and its the wicked witch the house fell on...
My husband works at a salvage yard. One day the police showed up with a cadaver dog. A guy had stolen cats from several of their vehicles and put them in his car which was parked down the road. Then he went back to steal some more. Bad decision. A car fell on him and he was crushed under there. His girlfriend finally called the police after a full day had gone by and he hadn't come home. She told them where he said he was going. They found his body under a car about 10 feet from the building where my husband had been working all day.
Actually, funny story, I work in the converter recycling business and I had two detectives stop by and ask me and the owner several questions about our whole process of buying, and if we keep paperwork, and then gave us pictures of three converter theft suspects to watch out for.
I had something similar happen to me. We were buying on a Friday, on our way to stay the weekend in Gettysburg Pa, (we’re kind of amateur historians and kind of paranormal investigators on the side lol) Anyway around dark, a cop pulls up to tell us to get off the battlefield, as it closes at night and sees the converters in back of the van, and starts asking all kinds of questions. Like man if I stole them, do you really think I’d be out here sightseeing? Lol but moral of the story, always keep good records. Luckily we always do. Good luck out there bud.
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converter recycling business ? that's all you do ?
I work at an auto parts store in an area where cat theft is common. A common solution has been using a high temp spray paint, like engine paint, in a bright color - pink, yellow, green, etc. Apparently, recyclers won’t take cats that have been painted.
Stole cat last fall. I say that because my 2001 tundra was parked from mid August to mid November. I knew immediately it was gone by the loud exhaust. $1100 to replace with a third party cat. As a elderly man with only a part time job it really set me back.
@@Somepepperwiththatsalt Tweakers when not twacked do still have a brain, and their entire life is focused on getting more drugs, so tweakers is a pretty good guess.
Most EU produced cars now require to have VIN numbers on cats and most scrap yards now have access to a data base if it has been flagged as stolen or not.
I was recently in an exhaust shop and heard there's actually a way to track cats. The story I got was thieves don't sell the stolen cats to local scrap yard, instead, they sell it to the cat dealers overseas, so by the time you call the police, ur cat is probably on a cargo ship 100 miles offshore.
I’m in the business, any real legit converter business doesn’t buy cats from people on the street, or if they do they require a license to photocopy in case of theft. I only buy from businesses like garages and salvage yards. To me it’s just not worth the risk, loss, and legal hassles. But there is no way to track converters currently. There are numbers on cats, but they only identify how much the cat is worth. All manufacturers would have to do is put a serial # on there, but they don’t care. Converter thieves are good for business from their perspective. Just more money in parts and labor replacing the targeted vehicles. Hope this helps.
@@CivilizedWarrior I think that makes sense, and I think what the shop meant by "tracking" was by identifying the cats stolen in the local area and varifying it with the ones on scrap yard basing off of time and model. But yeah, manufacturers putting vin or something on cats will make the current situation a lot better.
I hope the thieves were able to stop stealing stuff and be able to pay the bills with a legitimate job instead of having to steal to get by. If wages in this country weren't so low people wouldn't need to steal. Rehabilitation, not punishment.
@@anactualfingbottleofranch747 For some I could see this but speaking from my personal family experience people go for the least hard way to make a buck, and if they think they are good at it they will not care. 4 or 5 hours or real work vs 2 mins of being really stealthy. Also this mostly goes for anywhere but CA, but that is the own states fault for making the standard of living so stupied high (your standard wage over there you would live like a king where I live.)
Some years ago I worked at a transmission recycling warehouse. The owner essentially bought broken transmissions and took them apart to sell the aluminum and copper wires for profit. At some point, "PEOPLE" were showing up to sell catalytics, in bunches. They'll stop by with 5-8 of them at a time. My boss starts buying them and a few years later I found my self unemployed when the police arrested my boss for buying stolen catalytics, sentence to 6 years in prison, only served 1 and a half. Here in Chicago there is a high penalty for stealing and buying these goodies.
just take your exhaust with you whenever you leave your car and reinstall every time you need to drive somewhere. totally not inconvenient, plus theives won't have anything to steal
I take my radio faceplate, my quick=release steering wheel, and my cat with me every time I leave my car parked, even if it's just for a quick dash into my local 7-11. I have wheel locks on my rims, so I guess I don't have to worry about those.
The cat-shield is something, according to a Chinese saying, "to guard against gentlemen, but not against scoundrels (防君子，不防小人)". If they're really that desperate, nothing will stand in their way.
Trust me if you watcha video on a cat shield, there's no way of getting the cat out without at a minimum 5+ minutes of cutting, I'd guess closer to 15. No thief with 0.1% of a brain would risk spending that time
Yes, but most likely, they'll move onto an easier target. That's the whole point of the cat shield. To inconvenience the thief, and cause him to abandon your car and move on to an easier target. Let's use another example. A burglar can technically break into any house. But he'd prefer the house where the owner forgot to lock the back door before leaving for work. Locks on your house are meant to strongly encourage a burglar to choose another target. I can speak from personal experience here, with an example. Several years ago, someone tried to break into my detached garage while I was at work. However, the burglar didn't succeed, because I made sure to lock the garage. If he really wanted in, I'm sure he could have found a way. But it would have made noise and attracted attention, so he clearly gave up. So, the lock did its job.
If you install a Cat Shield , they should come with a sticker that you put on your drivers side window that says You have a Cat Shield and it also has the VIN number engraved on it .
Until the Feds force recyclers to prove where their shit came from this will never end. The fact that nobody questions the bum who carries in 5 brand new converters to the metal recycler is an issue. Companies making hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit are the problem, not the guy they pay $350 a cat.
The lowlifes stealing and selling them is absolutely still a problem. I know I could easily chop off a few cats to make some quick cash, but I also know it's a dick thing to do, and oh, yeah illegal.
I agree. I had cats that I removed from my own vehicle to replace and when i took them to a scrap yard they wanted receipts and proof but the thieves that stole mine obviously didn’t need any receipts
That would actually make it too hard for them to buy cats and now you get junk cats everywhere because recyclers aren’t buying them. The smarter move would be etching the VIN from the factory.
I still couldn’t believe it happened to me. I am so so sad since it’s was my first car as I got as a gift. It’s was very emotional and sentimental feeling. I hope it won’t happen again and to everyone. I hope police catches them soon and no more thief ever!
Here’s an idea: claymore mine with a string attached to the converter. Just epoxy the mine underneath the converter and put a sticker on the bottom that tells thieves there is a mine there. Boom problem solved
My cats are integrated into the stock manifold, and as such are also in an inconvenient place. Thank goodness for the street light at the edge of the driveway too.
I've seen plenty of 2nd gen Priuses show up at my shop with the cats stolen. First time we got one, a tech went out to grab it, I was inside working on another car. I hear this loud roar as the engine fired up. To my surprise as the garage door opened, a Prius rolls in, deafening the entire shop.
Yep. Friend of mine works in the theft/vandalism department of an auto insurance company. She's had so many 2nd-gen Priuses get totaled from cat theft alone. She even had one customer who had the cat stolen, got her car fixed, then the replacement cat got stolen two months later. And what really sucks is that replacement cats from the manufacturer are all backordered. So if you get your cat stolen in California, it might be months before the replacement cat is even available to install. (Aftermarket cats are available in some states, but not the California emissions states.)
Fun thing is, here in Germany he couldn't even drive it to the shop, he would have to get it towed. Up to 10k€ in fines if you drive without a cat and if the car is too loud and they enforce it realy well. Like they pull over any cars that are common in the tuning scene and check the mods
I have not had my catalytic converter stolen, but I did have “protection” installed in my 2016 Honda CRV. I don’t want to have a bunch of little CRVs running around.
Here in washington the scrap yards are requiring you show your registration or title for the type of car the cat came from. Since they pay different for every cat this is a no brainer check. Shady places will still be shady but the state is working to keep them accountable.
Most of the time CATs are not sold to a local shop. They are collected by scum bags and taken them out of state and sold in bulk. The scum bags post on FB marketplace/offerup/craigslist "buying cats no questions asked" and then pack a van full of them off to another state with weak/no regulations.
Another option for a deterrent is having a digital tilt sensor alongside your alarm. This would probably work for cars that are lower to the ground that require it to be jacked up. This is also a good deterrent for wheel theft.
This is easy to solve. Outlaw the recycling of sawn off catalytic converters. Make a law that you have to have the whole catalytic converter with pipe attached if you bring one to a recycler. That way you discourage this theft. If you can just cut one out of someone’s car real quick it’s not worth doing.
I’m a cop and this is a huge issue! It’s literally daily we are getting reports of thefts, and finding people with them in their trunks. Mainly it’s being done here to fuel drug addictions.
Thank the US goverment for profitting from the drug market. Giving weapons and money to drug cartels in latin america to avoid the impending economical recession with the help of billions and billions of dollars spent in jewels, art, mansions, school fees, vehicles and of course guns bought by the narcos. And usonians do absolutely nothing to call the government out because no one cares for some drug addicts and thousands of south American deaths. Murica....
When you find people with stolen cats in their trunk, let me guess, the judges lets them walk with no bail, right? How about you beating the sh!t out of the crook, knee to the neck, no need for a judge. Oh hell, just kill them (kill soft on crime judges too) the People are sick of the crime wave, the law has become useless.
I drive a 2007 Prius and I'm on my third cat. We finally put a skid plate with security screws over it, and it's thwarted more than one person. I have two extra jack stands I my garage now lmao
@@Enorkyeoj you realize you have to actually catch the person in the act for that to do anything for you. When they most often come in the middle of the night and a skid plate is a passive means of defense, no need to be watching your car all night for it to help. A gun is really not the solution for this
Great vid. I’d barely lived in my new home a month when I caught some kids trying to steal a neighbor’s cat. I chased them down with a sledgehammer in hand. Saved the neighbors a headache… but the police waited 7 hours to respond to my crime in progress call.
I had gone into a store one time with a buddy it was early into the night, about 10pm. We weren't there for very long, not even ten minutes. As we left my car wasn't running right and sounded slightly different (I have an exhaust system on it so it really didn't sound too different, just more drone) So when we got to our destination my buddy jumped under my car with a light, and sure enough you could see where they had made one cut right before the o2 sensor. Best part is I didn't have a cat lmao #Savethecats
@@XxAlex1995AlesanaXx one problem; my cat is on my headers and the bolts holding it to the resonator are so rusted they are like welded, so good luck getting it off without a saw or having to steal the entire exhaust system
Mine just got stolen last night and I had the metal sheeting from the company you diplayed. They didn’t even cut into it. Grabbed it without cutting, breaking or bending it. Useless
Just a anecdote, we had a series of cat thefts at my work in a secured area with fencing and locked gates etc etc. This happened to over 10+ vehicles multiple times over the last few months. They were cutting our fences and even did it while being clearly recorded on camera. Well the thief's luck ran out when he was spotted at another location by an police officer the suspect who was in the midst of cutting off a converter decided to pull out a firearm, he was shot and killed by said officer. I don't know if that specific thief was responsible for all the damage done in my area but it hasn't happened again since. It's sad to see people die over something like this but I suppose it's a sign of the times.
batterie power tools have been a blessing and a curse to us all as that is the only tool they use to steal it happens a lot in UK were i am the worst one was batterie powered angle grinder the thing can cut the best of locks and cats in seconds.
I’ve had it happen a couple of times myself. Both times were on my trucks. I had 1997 F250 and a 1985 Chevy Scottsdale that it happened to. The F250 got hit while sitting at a shop I used to go to. The Chevy’s was ganked while sitting in my yard. The really shitty part about the Chevy was that it was a fairly new stainless exhaust system.
I reckon you will find most of those are actually precats and the cat is actually downstream. They have a very similar construction and internal ceramic matrix, but no prescious metal catalysts as they require a narrow temperature band to operate most efficently which occurs further away from the exhaust ports. This is why even with best attempts to stay legal or as close to factory emissions as possible or just making a car run right when making custom exhausts can be pretty tricky, you may only have a 6" window to place oxygen sensors and cats in which may not work for other design reasons or just aesthetics so it gets put 1" out, that inch can easily mean the difference of failing emissions or worse IMO, dropping into a ""safe"" tune and rich fueling because of O2 sensor malfunction.
@@tommurphy4307 true, but if thats an issue really depends on yours and the cars region. Well worth the hassle and cost for the emissions reduction to have to skim the heads at 100,000 if its only a $1000 job. Be unlucky enough to have a Renault where I am though and that turns into a $3800 job and makes ya wonder WTF anyone would import one to here for in the first place.
Like Subaru putting pre cats in the up pipe before the turbo? No way that wasn't planned obsolescence on their part and you barely see those turbo ones(Legacy GT) on the road today.
My thoughts on the matter, because of the political climate here in California, there is no stopping thieves from stealing what are they want when they want. Remember, thieves can steal whatever they want as long as it is less than $900. And if they get arrested, they be out on the street less than 24 hours. This is what people voted for or lack thereof. Citizens need to get involved in politics and do a little bit of homework before going to the voting booth. That's just the way it is. My thoughts
Having lived through the Era of stereo theft, protecting your car against theft will result in excessive vandalism. I recall a number cars that were broken into that the owner removed the stereo faceplate, pissed of thieves would jam a screwdriver through the stereo then smash other things while they were at. Also more stereos were stolen in broad daylight in public view. My stereo was eventually stolen in my apartment's locked parking garage.
My brothers friend went shopping and a thief stole his radio in broad daylight. Not only did they steal it but also put his dash back together and locked his vehicle after the theft. He just laughed.
My car was opened one morning and they intended to steal the stereo, they damaged the door knob, the only thing of value was the stereo. I paid to take it off and put a signet to the door that the stereo had been removed and they never touched my car again ...
Back in the day, I bolted the back of the receiver to an angle bracket and silicone d razor blades back there. Sure enough some scumbag attempted to steal it. I had a chewed up glove compartment and blood samples on the floor. I listened to that Alpine another five years........f those thieves.
Can we get an official notification sound of Nolan saying "DO NOT DO THIS!" so I can use it on my phone? Ex gf calling, Amazon campaigns, credit card application calls, all apply to Nolans wisdom. "DO NOT DO THIS!"
@@Eduardo_Espinoza you can block some ex's and be done, others are as crazy as to get a whole new number just to contact you again and it's absolutely wild like freal, same concept of the scam calls block one scam number you get like 6 different numbers for that same scam call coming
I've had my cat stolen twice... It would be more but I waited 6 plus months to replace the second one. During the time they came into the parking lot to check to see if I replaced it. The price to replace my cat was $4200. Fortunately, my insurance replace it even though I have an older car, which did not have full coverage, however, I added comprehensive to my insurance with zero deductible (it was worth the little bit extra it costs). An important caveat is my car was in excellent shape even though it was older and had extremely low mileage for its age. But still I went months without having a car and I'm a senior so I missed many doctors appointments that I actually needed to go to because I had no transportation. The police did nothing when I reported my converter was stolen and also when I reported that the thieves were checking on it and describe their vehicle. They didn't even do a drive-by to see or hang out since my car was a great magnet for catalytic converter thefts. Oh I forgot to mention my car is in a friend of mine's garage hundreds of miles away from my house and they had an old junk car there that I'm using to this day. One day I will have my car back...
My 1st week in California, moved from Florida, my car was stolen and the they tried taking the catalytic converter off after parking it in front of the police station of the local community college. Love to see it
Its like the "Gun free zone" signs, they work so well for those that follow the laws... Laws only apply to those that follow them. Money usually dominates morality in the eyes of people who want to gain, no matter the cost. Thats why criminals exist in the first place.
Down here in Houston its a bad problem. Had my uncle hold em at gun point til cops came to get em, no one was touching his raptor and getting away with it lol
@@Gldn1017 why is your uncle carrying with ball ammo? A proper defensive load will stop inside whomever it's shot at and you don't have to worry about causing a mess. Not to mention anyone who carries is responsible for every round that they fire and where those rounds end up.
I caught a guy stealing them off my truck and a few others. Walked out armed when he was jumping the fence. Would’ve been an illegal shot in my state, even if I were to shoot someone over a catalytic convertir. Had birdshot anyway, would’ve just peppered him up nicely.
I had mine stole off my 2003 honda CRV right out of the parking lot at work. It's been a small nightmare to deal with because the cost of the repair was too high for the insurance company, so they totaled the car and I had to buy it back and put it on a salvage registration. It's been really annoying that someone would just ruin another life for like 300 dollars.
I’m so sorry this happened to you. Someone just stole mine off my 2003 Honda Pilot last week. The repair through insurance also cost more than the value of the car and they were going to total it. I was devastated, as I’m sure you were because older Hondas are fantastic cars. Luckily, I didn’t have mine totaled in the end, but it was close. Makes me so angry these thieves ruin people’s lives just to make a quick buck. And nothing will probably happen to them unfortunately. Hang in there, and once again, I’m so sorry that happened.
This happened to my Subaru Forester last year. The engine blew a head gasket and I had it towed to a repair shop , the following day I came back with a replacement engine (as this is easier) swapped it and went on my way. I realized this later on when the car had a loud exhaust sound on cold start.Lo and behold the dudes at the repair shop cut my exhaust, stole the CAT and welded it back on !!!!!!!!!!!!. Earth is hard 😪😪
Yesterday I had dental routine work and I came out, I saw two old white cargo vans parked between my 4Ruunner 2021. So I walked hurry to my SUV, and started the engine then rolled down my window to hear any loud noise from exhaust. Lucky, it was normal sound so I reversed my SUV and parked different spot so I could have more space to look beneath the SUV. Big relief, I didn't see any missing parts.
My cat got stolen in 2017 in another city while I was clothes shopping at the mall. Insurance covered it and it costs $1900 Canadian then they found out a little later it was the mechanics shop going around and stealing them then taking the cats over to the metal Scrap yard.
I actually just found out not too long ago a person I went to school with died “working on a car”. I decided to see what I could find on Google and it turns out a couple of months before he was arrested for stealing catalytic converters.
A local MX5 specialist has come up with a sheet aluminium cat cover. Aluminium gunks up those reciprocating saws and makes them useless. Pretty decent deterrent.
Great explanation of this unsettling new trend. I hope government entities will step up and implement programs similar to the scrap copper ID protocols put into place years ago. I hope karma bites these thieves in the ass and drops a car on them! Thanks for this!
My next door neighbor had his Prius cat stolen right out in front of our house. My neighbor two doors down had his stolen, and my friend had hers stolen from her driveway. A straight piped Prius is surprisingly loud. I've now installed four cat shields for Prius folks. This is nuts.
Story time: Apparently the previous owner of the car reversed hard into something like a curb or stone and pushed the exhaust system back. That cause part of the exhaust to be low to the ground (always scraping over humps) and another part closer to the catalytic converter to be touching the subframe. I went to a shop and asked if they could cut, turn and weld the bent part of the exhaust, so it wouldn't scrape on humps. After having a quick look, he said that it wouldn't be so easy. He ended up cutting out the converter, putting a similar sized pipe in place and then being able to move the exhaust enough, that it wouldn't scrape. He also said that removing the converter would let the engine breathe easier, making it feel like it had more power. Very long story short, the 15+ year old car is now technically straight piped (and still underpowered, because it's a Corolla)
So the exhaust & muffler guy stole your cat right from under your nose! So I had a car years ago and my exhaust/tail pipe got pushed hard from a high curb while turning around going in reverse. I took it to Midas, they cut the deformed pipe which was about 3 feet length cut a couple of 4" rings to slip on the cut pipes - put the new pipe up, slid the rings in place, welded 'er up and no more scraping the ground on bumpy uneven roads and railroad crossings. I still had my cat when I left the shop.
A really easy solution especially for car enthusiasts with lowered cars is getting air suspension. You can air it out and there would literally be no way for a thief to even jack your car up in the first place. Obviously that’s an insanely expensive solution, but either way it would still work.
@@keoki_ that's fair, not that I would. But I'm pretty sure there's low profile jacks, and the car can only go so low for the exhaust and body to not be damaged. I believe the thieves typically target trucks and other vehicles that are higher off the ground
They don't care. They have low-pro jacks to lift the whole side of a car and can do the job in less than 30 seconds in some cases. These aren't your grandpa's joggers.
Theyll get it anyway. They will even wrap a chain around it and rip the exhaust off with a truck. The flange is the first part to break, leaving them to throw the exhaust in the back and cut it out later.
@@GoSwearingOrGoHome Nobody normal wants to hear your horrible growling beast from over a block away. There is this thing called a muffler. At least use a good one.
Another video suggested that you paint the Cat bright yellow before etching the VIN onto it. This would deter the thief because it would take even more time having to remove the paint. Since the CAT isn’t visible, I think this might work.
“Who’s buying these stolen cats?” The people who got theirs stolen.
@penguins get that shit out of here
@@kolinmartz he said HYYNNNNAAAAA
thought the same
Its not even replacing the cat that sucks. Your brand new car looses its warranty
Lol
It got so bad in my city that cops started planting bait Silverado's and F250's with trackers installed in the cats. I believed it worked, because converter theft basically vanished.
Props to your cops 👌
Wow I wish the cops in my city were proactive about it... at all...
@@Darkfyre755 Here it got to the point that they stopped failing smog due to missing cat. There were 10-15 stolen a day. A guy that I know got hit 3 times in a month. I got hit once and welded on a guard for my Silverado.
We had a dealership get 20 robbed over night.
Damn, I've now been hit two times in a month so i hope it doesn't get much worse 😅
Some will say that cop bait tactics are bad, but no one shouldve tried stealing them in the first place
Imagine firing up your Prius in the morning and it sounding like a V8
Yeah, that's impossible
xdd
probably would thank the "thief" for the engine swap
Someone stole my cat and my firing order changed! /s
It will sound like a civic
I recently fell victim to this. My vehicle I've had since high school that's survived two wrecks and almost 20 years on the road was totaled by the insurance because the thieves caused additional damage to the car when they were trying to cut the cat out
Very sad.
which is why you should get your car towed after theft, not risk driving it to the body shop
Just buy the car back from the insurance company with a salvaged title, repair it, and get a rebuilt title for it and keep driving it. That's what I did when someone totaled my first vehicle while it was completely drivable still and I was able to fix it myself for a few hundred dollars.
"Straight pipes exhaust"
-gets pulled over
*Yes officer my cat was stolen*
Hahaha 🤣
You wont get in trouble in my state.
No it’s a deterrent
indeed
lol
Nolan's glasses reload is so simple but gets me every time
@penguins shut yp
This comment fuels my soul
you play too many video games. that's not a reload sound.
You are the guy who made the post on donut media subreddit about this ?
It's so hack, you have hella low standards
I love the cocking noise that's added every time Nolan pushes his glasses up. Pure quality.
You think it would get old, but it never does
timestamp?
@@amirabdullahi9768 It happens multiple times, but here's an example. ua-cam.com/video/JAWwx5_pc3Q/v-deo.html
@@corynewton9311 Thanks man timestamp is 6:08 for anybody else who only notices it if they are trying to find it purposely.
It never will get old 😂😂
I work at a public school and had to borrow my parent's SUV while my car was in the shop. I finish my shift around 6:00pm, go to start the car, only to find that the cat had been stolen. Wide open parking lot, cameras everywhere, still daylight, on government property, and it still got stolen. Worse yet we never caught the guy. These thieves are crazy!
Vote democrat. They think the crimes are excusable due to poverty. Need 15 trillion in aid prevent it.
@@NathanielJames-jk5td Vote democrat. They think if you eliminate poverty noone will steal your cats. Because democrats have a solution while MAGAs only whine.
@@NathanielJames-jk5td There's a big difference between thinking something _causes_ theft and that something _excuses_ it. No sane Democrat is out there saying we should be nice to the poor catalytic converter thieves. They're saying that, in addition to the traditional policing and justice system (both of which could use other reforms, of course), we should be trying to reduce poverty, both because that's the right thing to do in the first place, and because people with well-paying jobs and stable finances don't tend to steal car parts for junkyard money.
@@RyanToshDon't bother reasoning with those morons.
@@RyanToshor, without it being a detriment to our pockets, we could selectively employ more policing in high risk neighbourhoods, which has been branded as racial profiling.
I live in my Prius while traveling the country and When I’m not in nature Or on the road I’ll sleep in the city. One night I woke up to the jack being put under my car. I instantly knew what was going on and laid on my horn. They ran off and drove away, leaving the jack, the saw, and a half empty 40 next to my passenger rear door. Thank you for the tools and the drink thieves
Ahahahaha legend you are. I would have waited for the guy to get underneath then drive. But maybe thats not the best option.
@@gavin_thought No, it would have been the best option.
@@gavin_thought That would be murder, sadly
@@TraceguyRune Trying to drive your own car away from a robbery? Not a chance you'd get convicted for that.
@@oldbloke135 You will if someone read these comments.
We're busting our asses at our department trying to get the word out about cat theft.
Thanks Nolan and Donut for helping spread awareness!!
acab
I spoke to local law enforcement after I had mine stolen but by the time they arrived the thieves were already gone
Damn how about you stop them? I'd get fired for being bad at my job.
@@deesnutz42069 Comments like this, is what makes YOU part of the problem.
@@recon6975 negs they’re chillin
I was a U-Haul transfer driver. The amount of cats that were stolen were amazing. We'd transfer those trucks and have to keep the window down while we drove otherwise the exhaust fumes would build up in the truck cab. These trucks were so loud, I'd have to block my ears while driving. Sounded like a brick in a trashcan rolling down a cliff multiplied by 20
U-Haul transfer driver= You'd drive a particular U-Haul owned vehicle from 1 U-Haul location to another for whatever reasons? Just curious is all, thanks.
@@mongolikechewchew2475 If you get a bunch of people who move out of, say, Shithole California and move to Paradise Texas, eventually you'll end up with 5,000 U-Hauls in Texas.
Someone has to take a bunch back to the lion's den.
@@NarwahlGaming Roger that! That's definitely a 1 way journey out of Shithole,Cali!
@@NarwahlGaming Why would anyone do that? Texas is just as bad...
@@davelowets cost of living. I have a friend who is a nurse and lived her whole life in CA. Loved it there. Housing costs are just too high which also means taxes are too high on those houses. She got a job in TX making the same money but housing and associated costs are way less.
The most common pick up line in my town is “ Babe, is your heart a catalytic converter? Cuz I’m bout a steal it.”
Oh ffs... +1 for you. And time to move
Welcome to Detroit, we used to make cars now we steal them.
@@TheKingDrew Ur just taking back Ur produce 😂😏
@@TheKingDrew Can’t have sh** in Detroit
Donut media instagram material
"Cats only last for 10 years."
*sweats in 32-year-old cat.*
i got a 85 rx7 and it's still the original exhaust lmao
Well in Europe you won't get away with that because your car gets tested every year, and you need to meet emission standards.
my 260k mile ’00 Tacoma just passed it’s CA smog test with it’s original cat 🤞
@@CapnFlappyJaw42 but it’s prolly not daily driven n also ten years in just a minimum some last way longer not sure tho
1995 C2500 with 217k, still original exhaust. Well everything that hasn’t fallen off from rust.
I'm an apprentice mechanic up in Canada and we deal with this a few times a week, one thing you forgot to mention before you drive to the mechanic is to make sure they didn't also cut a fuel line or anything else significant. A lot of the cut cats we deal with are rushed like you mentioned which usually mean its done like butcher work and the exhaust is rarely the only thing cut!
This! I have seen many cases where they also cut the fuel line as you mentioned.
This should get pinned- it could save someone's life
im a mechanic and i usally park my customers cars in the parking and now these theivs are steeling licence plates now
I've seen people cut drivelines thinking it was the exhaust
Manufacturers dont run fuel lines anywhere NEAR a 1500° catalytic converter
I was homeless build myself up and started a company . Was hit with someone stealing my catalytic converter off my work truck. Sucks... I know they don't care what I went through, but many people are suffering from this crime.
Everyone
We need to vote for more Democrats, they are all about consequences for crime.
Reminds me of the night me and my buddy caught a converter thief. My friend lit him up and I racked the shotgun. The guy didn’t seem to happy to be staring down the barrel of my 12 gauge. He tried to roll away until I smashed him in the nuts with my steel toe boots. We cuffed him to a light pole and called the cops, they didn’t seem to concerned that we kinda “ worked him over” before they got there. I work hard for my money too and I’ll gladly mess somebody up for trying to take what I worked for for free. The next guy who tries to rob me might get “ the casino” cheaters justice punishment
@@waterheaterservices I think the bleeding heart liberals are for lighter sentences, less punishment, give them a second chance.
@@matthewcaughey8898 Bullshit...
I got a Prius, if you lower it, they won’t be able to get a jack under !!
I thought the same thing. 🤣 Corners better too.
Lmfao maybe just flip it on its side then?
Any car and lower it what are u talking ab
Every gear head who has to drive his car onto 2x4's before they can slid a jack or lift arms under it laughs at catalytic converter theft.
Needs more low
In my area, all scrap yards require a valid ID, and they all communicate with each other to count a total number of catalytic converters associated to the id
That’s a smart way to keep track! And easier than getting VIN engraved
What wya so I can line u up
@@amparomartinez5581 Sorry, I am not interested.
The local scrap yards I've been to also require you to show and register your ID for any car parts sold.
@@Daniel-po8eb In my area, they do.
Missed opportunity to use the phrase “cat burglars”
I will take great care👂💅🤝🙏🤲🙌👐
You do know the definition of burglary though right? Burglary defines breaking and entering. Stealing a cat does not apply.
@@TraceguyRune I'm guessing you didn't get the joke...
@@walt3479 What joke? The phrase totally doeant apply here.. The joke's on you
@@TraceguyRuneBreaking the Cat and entering the under carriage
When I was in school in Hartford, someone got crushed by a prius while trying to steal the Cat from a car in my dorm parking lot. They found a body pinned under a prius the next morning with a jack, a sawzall and mostly empty bottle of hooch.
Karma.
And that children is why you steal sober
"I'm willing to bet if someone catches you, they won't be so kind"
Nolans way of saying you might get shot if you get caught.
You sure would in Texas 💪
@@marcperis7610 here in corpus christi I know an officer that had a gun pulled on him when he confronted a guy stealing a cat in broad daylight. The guys buddy came around from the other side of the car and pulled a gun on the cop so the cop shot his ass. And no he didn't live. Win for the good guys.The end.
Not much chance in CA. FL, however. Good luck, buddy.
I'd simply lower the jack.
@@badchuck16 That's just cruel. Sure these thieves should be punished but is crushing them to death necessary?
The reason that Prius and other hybrids are targeted isn't because their precious metals "aren't being use up". Its because they had more of the precious metals to begin with. A hybrid like a Prius needs a "stronger" catalytic converter compared to most vehicles its size and power. This is because a hybrid vehicle might need Wide Open Throttle (WOT) before the cat has had a chance to heat up, since the car could be driven under EV power. A hybrid's cat has to be able to work cold, while a normal vehicle's cat won't have to do that kind of work until it has warmed up.
The cat on a Prius has a similar amount of precious metals as the cat on a large pickup.
makes sense
That makes sense why, when your ride is getting its smog check, it has to be at operating temperature. If the cat isn't as effective at ambient temperature, then it'd need a "warm up" period, as you described, else, it'd give a false High HC reading.
Thank you. I was going to comment that an element does not get "used up" unless it's in a nuclear reaction.
I didn't think the precious metals were getting used up either. I have an '88 Ford Ranger with 180,000+ miles on it and it still passes emissions. PLUS it says catalytic, a catalyst in a reaction is not used up.
Except car manufacturers have stupid weight adding systems like smog pumps. Maybe a Prius doesnt have one, maybe toyota called it something else, but my 2000 malibu had one and all it really achieved was adding 15lbs to the vehicle. Basically during the 'warm up' period after starting the engine cold a blower pumps fresh air into the exhaust stream, at each freaking valve, so the cat has fresh O2 allowing it to get hotter faster. After the cat is up to temp though, it shuts off and just sits there.....wasting fuel via added weight.....😒
luckily I think it was a failed anti-smog experiment because my current kia, exgfs versa, my parents f150 triton and subarus dont have them.....good riddance.....
Besides, a single cat, regardless of the vehicle it came off of has miniscule precious metals in them. Most of the cat theft was ultimately leading to a scheme by precious metals reclamation facilities that were ran by shady peeps importing cats by the container load.
Thieves being crushed by the cars they are stealing from needs to happen more often.
You been in the pipeline filling in time. Provided with toys and scouting for boys.
So put airbags on your car, but instead of dropping it, raise it. Wait for thief to slide under and drop that bitch. #makeitbounce
The perfect Karma.
me working in the auto insurance business, this was really informative. Thanks for the video!
When he mentioned about putting air suspension on I laughed imagining a whole bunch of prius' slammed to the ground
ngl slammed prius do look dope
@@ilham7345 I'm a proud prius drive, but no, no prius looks "dope"😂
With sensor under the car, that crushes anything going under it.
that wouldn't stop them
@@benpero6510 they make widebody kits for the prius, and yeah its a $2K kit that you have to install yourself, or have someone else install, but i would gladly have a prius with that bodykit
Nolan: cats only last 10 years
Me: laughs in 20 year old daily
Same bro. But with modern cars, especially if taken care of properly, age is nothing but a number baby.
Short heat cycle's kill 'em
Headed to smog my 2001 wj. Its all still there. Aint had a problem yet. Yet.
Laughs in 30 year old daily (diesel though)
Laughs in “my daily hasn’t had cats on it since 1995”
Has happened to me twice. I finally got the cat shield on mine. Thank you for mentioning this and I hope more people will take getting this shield into consideration.
Twice! Dang what state u in!?
@@bmanclassics4350 sounds like Ohio to me…
@@redsus8533 damn sure aint Texas... we shoot 1st ask questions later...
@@bmanclassics4350 dude, we get it your from Texas...
Two words, test tube 😉
Great video explanation! I wish people would stop stealing peoples catalytic converters. It makes me angry that thieves are violating peoples belongings and it’s not a cheap fix. Obviously they don’t care what they do to others, they just care about the money.
Its people flooding into the country with NO skills to care for them selves..so they Feed of the working people getting 1/4 of what what a replacement CC costs
Gotta survive somehow right?
"If OEM started putting VINS on cats however, then it would help"
So Dodge doing the same thing with body panels on their cars back then WASNT totally obsolete like I was lead to believe in Gone in 60 Seconds (1973)
me: steals fender from a 1970s challenger
the wrecker yard: bro wtf
Won't help at all in this case. Do you not even know what they are doing with the cats? Lol. They are opening them up and salvaging whatever precious metals they can that are inside the cat.
@@eunosmedia90 I have a 70s challenger
@@loganbeedy5950 that's sick you should upload a video on youtube about it
Won't stop a junkie in the end. Serializing parts is worthless when they part contains precious metals. Because to get all the precious metals out efficiently you use chemicals. Mainly certain acids. This strips the gold, platinum, silver, etc. from the rest of the part. Then once all your metals are at the bottom of your acidic bath you put it into a homemade propane furnace and flux them together. With a thermostat you can easily seperate the metals. Getting you all the useable metal worth value is cheap, easy and efficient.
This is popular amongst the meth crowd. Especially since its a quick turnaround time and is virtually untraceable. All that's needed is some proper plastic tupperware, some hardware store acids, a propane tank from a grill and a Sawzall to crudely remove the cat converter.
You don't even need industrial grade acids. Acids taken from household chemicals can get the job done. Once you get some extra money you can upgrade to proper industrial grade acid. Plus you can clean it and reuse it, so you don't need to worry about constantly disposing of, or buying the acid needed. Don't have a furnace? Well its easy to build one cheap with some kiln/furnace bricks, a propane tank and cheap blower attachment. You can cheaply add a temperature probe to make the process a little more exact when it comes to fluxing the metal in the furnace to easily seperate it.
When I sold the old Catalytic converter off my Impreza to a scrapyard they took my picture and made a copy of my drivers license and they made me show some proof of ownership (I showed them the receipt for my new cat)
Reminds me of when I lived in Paris and had my GPS stolen. I looked in ads and saw a guy selling 6 different GPS. Scrapyards know if someone comes in every day with a bunch of catalytic converters. I'm glad your guy checked.
Shop, "Why is there blood under the car??"
Me : "Dude tried to steal the cat, got crushed"
Me: "I want it clear coated... it's about sending a message"
Lmao thas y ive always said thas y dope heads are skinny... can u imagine a fat guy tryna steal a prius cat?! 😂😂 walk out side look down and its the wicked witch the house fell on...
It’s not about money it’s about sending a message
if i ever see anyone stealing a cat im lowering the jack on them
@@ericchen776 the American way
Lol that happened in my city, dude was paste and his buddy decided he’d rather run.
My husband works at a salvage yard. One day the police showed up with a cadaver dog. A guy had stolen cats from several of their vehicles and put them in his car which was parked down the road. Then he went back to steal some more. Bad decision. A car fell on him and he was crushed under there. His girlfriend finally called the police after a full day had gone by and he hadn't come home. She told them where he said he was going. They found his body under a car about 10 feet from the building where my husband had been working all day.
Actually, funny story, I work in the converter recycling business and I had two detectives stop by and ask me and the owner several questions about our whole process of buying, and if we keep paperwork, and then gave us pictures of three converter theft suspects to watch out for.
Lol did the 3 scumbags look like a faces of meth poster?
I had something similar happen to me. We were buying on a Friday, on our way to stay the weekend in Gettysburg Pa, (we’re kind of amateur historians and kind of paranormal investigators on the side lol) Anyway around dark, a cop pulls up to tell us to get off the battlefield, as it closes at night and sees the converters in back of the van, and starts asking all kinds of questions. Like man if I stole them, do you really think I’d be out here sightseeing? Lol but moral of the story, always keep good records. Luckily we always do. Good luck out there bud.
converter recycling business ? that's all you do ?
@@williamhilbert8324 they likely, looked like someone from the BET awards.
dnno if i'd call that a funny story lol
“Thieves target newer cars”
Me with my 2005 Honda Accord: Happy
don't be so happy someone stole my 2002 chevy van's catalytic 🤣🤣
Some one stole my gfs cats when we went to la and she drives a 99 Honda accord
*happily woddles in my 97 Grand cherokee*
Someone tried to take my coworker's 2002 Honda Pilot's cat
Didn't finish the job, so now there's just a huge exhaust leak :D
Someone stole the cat off my '95 Golf, don't be so happy, you're in danger :D
I work at an auto parts store in an area where cat theft is common. A common solution has been using a high temp spray paint, like engine paint, in a bright color - pink, yellow, green, etc. Apparently, recyclers won’t take cats that have been painted.
excellent idea !
AWesome! Saw this hint on another vid. when it didn't get repeated on this one, I thought, meh. But now, I know this is a great way to go! Thanks
Why would they care if the cat is painted? They only want the precious metals inside.
Hi paint, say hello to my power washer. Or should I say "say goodbye"
Mine was painted and still got stolen :(
Stole cat last fall. I say that because my 2001 tundra was parked from mid August to mid November. I knew immediately it was gone by the loud exhaust. $1100 to replace with a third party cat. As a elderly man with only a part time job it really set me back.
"Don't do it." I was on the fence; thanks for keeping me on the straight and narrow.
Totally won’t inspire anyone to steal one
we need Nolan wisdom
"Imma bout to become a petty criminal..."
Nolan: "DON'T DO IT!"
"Nevermind."
I had my cat stolen earlier this year. On an unrelated note: we should bring back the death penalty
dude, that sinanju looks awesome. can i get the sauce of that pic or maybe the artist's name?
you want to have somone killed for stealing a piece of metal from your car?
@@Armenedin YES!
Wouldn't catching them and forcing them to pay you back plus interest better than the death penalty....
@@boota8915 Nope world better without them
"Who is stealing them?"
Tweakers
"Who is buying them?"
Companies that know how to commit fraud
I doubt a tweaker honestly. That’s alot if money to be made. Alot. That’s somebody with common sense at least.
@@Somepepperwiththatsalt Oh, you sweet summer child.
@@Somepepperwiththatsalt Tweakers when not twacked do still have a brain, and their entire life is focused on getting more drugs, so tweakers is a pretty good guess.
@@Somepepperwiththatsalt No fucking thief has common sense.
defenetly tweekers been there done that
Most EU produced cars now require to have VIN numbers on cats and most scrap yards now have access to a data base if it has been flagged as stolen or not.
I was recently in an exhaust shop and heard there's actually a way to track cats. The story I got was thieves don't sell the stolen cats to local scrap yard, instead, they sell it to the cat dealers overseas, so by the time you call the police, ur cat is probably on a cargo ship 100 miles offshore.
Yep those ads in marketplace, "I buy cats"
I’m in the business, any real legit converter business doesn’t buy cats from people on the street, or if they do they require a license to photocopy in case of theft. I only buy from businesses like garages and salvage yards. To me it’s just not worth the risk, loss, and legal hassles. But there is no way to track converters currently. There are numbers on cats, but they only identify how much the cat is worth. All manufacturers would have to do is put a serial # on there, but they don’t care. Converter thieves are good for business from their perspective. Just more money in parts and labor replacing the targeted vehicles. Hope this helps.
@@CivilizedWarrior I think that makes sense, and I think what the shop meant by "tracking" was by identifying the cats stolen in the local area and varifying it with the ones on scrap yard basing off of time and model. But yeah, manufacturers putting vin or something on cats will make the current situation a lot better.
Lots of crack heads have oversea connections
@@CivilizedWarrior Serial numbers is the only way to stop this. No serial number, no buying from thieves.
I had mine stolen while we were at the hospital with our young daughter.
I hope the thieves find themselves in a locked room with rabid honey badgers
if you live in CA, then unfortunately they aren't.
If they can afford the hospital they can afford a new cat
-- The thief, probably
Seriously hope all is well with your daughter though.
I hope the thieves were able to stop stealing stuff and be able to pay the bills with a legitimate job instead of having to steal to get by. If wages in this country weren't so low people wouldn't need to steal. Rehabilitation, not punishment.
@@anactualfingbottleofranch747 For some I could see this but speaking from my personal family experience people go for the least hard way to make a buck, and if they think they are good at it they will not care. 4 or 5 hours or real work vs 2 mins of being really stealthy. Also this mostly goes for anywhere but CA, but that is the own states fault for making the standard of living so stupied high (your standard wage over there you would live like a king where I live.)
@@nekojesse I agree, it's almost impossible to survive on minimum wage in this country
have a sign saying "no you cannot have my cat"
they can't take your cat without your consent
Gun free zone signs works so well for the same reason...
I hope the sarcasm feels hick.
This will only work in California
Found the Canadian! “Sorry, you can’t have it buddy!” “That’s ok, friend!” (friendly thief walks away humming Canadian anthem)
@@aaronmacy9134 as a Canadian i can confirm this is true
Some years ago I worked at a transmission recycling warehouse. The owner essentially bought broken transmissions and took them apart to sell the aluminum and copper wires for profit. At some point, "PEOPLE" were showing up to sell catalytics, in bunches. They'll stop by with 5-8 of them at a time. My boss starts buying them and a few years later I found my self unemployed when the police arrested my boss for buying stolen catalytics, sentence to 6 years in prison, only served 1 and a half. Here in Chicago there is a high penalty for stealing and buying these goodies.
I remember this happening to Effspot’s Prius on his channel
yeah.........good times 😂
Happened to Eric the Car Guy too. To a Honda element.
Lol that's the first thing I thought about after seeing the notification
Didn’t he have his stolen twice?
Happened to Emeliahartfords Prius too.
just take your exhaust with you whenever you leave your car and reinstall every time you need to drive somewhere. totally not inconvenient, plus theives won't have anything to steal
Man you brought me back to the 90s when we'd have "socketed" car radios that you could take with you so they wouldn't get stolen.
@@yessitsme6884 Or those stereo that had the removable faceplate and keypad
Or weld a skidplate around it
I take my radio faceplate, my quick=release steering wheel, and my cat with me every time I leave my car parked, even if it's just for a quick dash into my local 7-11.
I have wheel locks on my rims, so I guess I don't have to worry about those.
Thank you for Educating those thieves that don’t know! 😩
The cat-shield is something, according to a Chinese saying, "to guard against gentlemen, but not against scoundrels (防君子，不防小人)". If they're really that desperate, nothing will stand in their way.
Trust me if you watcha video on a cat shield, there's no way of getting the cat out without at a minimum 5+ minutes of cutting, I'd guess closer to 15. No thief with 0.1% of a brain would risk spending that time
Yes, but most likely, they'll move onto an easier target. That's the whole point of the cat shield. To inconvenience the thief, and cause him to abandon your car and move on to an easier target. Let's use another example. A burglar can technically break into any house. But he'd prefer the house where the owner forgot to lock the back door before leaving for work. Locks on your house are meant to strongly encourage a burglar to choose another target. I can speak from personal experience here, with an example. Several years ago, someone tried to break into my detached garage while I was at work. However, the burglar didn't succeed, because I made sure to lock the garage. If he really wanted in, I'm sure he could have found a way. But it would have made noise and attracted attention, so he clearly gave up. So, the lock did its job.
Damn those little people!
Thieves are lazy though, so we need to use that to our advantage.
If you install a Cat Shield , they should come with a sticker that you put on your drivers side window that says You have a Cat Shield and it also has the VIN number engraved on it .
"I like the idea of cat shields." "Noone can steal your cat if it's not there!"
Hey baby how are you
@@fazbruh down bad
@@fazbruh sewer level down bad
@@fazbruh guy took the lil nas x easy access pole
@@liampresswood9533 mans about to get hacked or a virus on his computer or phone 😂
Until the Feds force recyclers to prove where their shit came from this will never end. The fact that nobody questions the bum who carries in 5 brand new converters to the metal recycler is an issue. Companies making hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit are the problem, not the guy they pay $350 a cat.
The lowlifes stealing and selling them is absolutely still a problem. I know I could easily chop off a few cats to make some quick cash, but I also know it's a dick thing to do, and oh, yeah illegal.
Exactly. Something tells me the recycling industry is lobbying politicians to do nothing and everyone else along the way is doing the same.
I agree. I had cats that I removed from my own vehicle to replace and when i took them to a scrap yard they wanted receipts and proof but the thieves that stole mine obviously didn’t need any receipts
Wouldn't that be a state thing in the US not a Fed thing?
That would actually make it too hard for them to buy cats and now you get junk cats everywhere because recyclers aren’t buying them. The smarter move would be etching the VIN from the factory.
I still couldn’t believe it happened to me. I am so so sad since it’s was my first car as I got as a gift. It’s was very emotional and sentimental feeling. I hope it won’t happen again and to everyone. I hope police catches them soon and no more thief ever!
Maaan I feel your pain 🤬🤬🤬
Here’s an idea: claymore mine with a string attached to the converter. Just epoxy the mine underneath the converter and put a sticker on the bottom that tells thieves there is a mine there. Boom problem solved
Boom indeed, LMAO...
Take the car to a mechanic after:
- "What have we got here, sir?"
- "Uhh, a blown exhaust..."
My cats are integrated into the stock manifold, and as such are also in an inconvenient place. Thank goodness for the street light at the edge of the driveway too.
Tldr: stop thieves by turning your car into a car bomb
get those at wal-mart?
I've seen plenty of 2nd gen Priuses show up at my shop with the cats stolen. First time we got one, a tech went out to grab it, I was inside working on another car. I hear this loud roar as the engine fired up. To my surprise as the garage door opened, a Prius rolls in, deafening the entire shop.
Yep. Friend of mine works in the theft/vandalism department of an auto insurance company. She's had so many 2nd-gen Priuses get totaled from cat theft alone. She even had one customer who had the cat stolen, got her car fixed, then the replacement cat got stolen two months later. And what really sucks is that replacement cats from the manufacturer are all backordered. So if you get your cat stolen in California, it might be months before the replacement cat is even available to install. (Aftermarket cats are available in some states, but not the California emissions states.)
That’s just hilarious!🤣🤣
Fun thing is, here in Germany he couldn't even drive it to the shop, he would have to get it towed.
Up to 10k€ in fines if you drive without a cat and if the car is too loud and they enforce it realy well. Like they pull over any cars that are common in the tuning scene and check the mods
@@afox5319 I would pass that inspection; I just wallowed them out with a bar.
my 2nd gen had its cat stolen 2 weeks ago...i've never heard a prius that loud lol
Dying to know what kind of ammo Nolan's glasses take.
Glock mags, but only 10 rounders. That Kali life...
20/20 caliber.
🤣 I'll see myself out.
Whatever it is, its got to have a banana clip, with as much as he reloads.
@@C-M-E Nah definitely sounds like some 12 gauge, probably 1oz. slugs👌😄
.22 short. Because he's weak af.
The obvious solution is we should use dogalytic converters instead.
I have not had my catalytic converter stolen, but I did have “protection” installed in my 2016 Honda CRV.
I don’t want to have a bunch of little CRVs running around.
That's funny, man!. LOL..
what prot?
Nice
@@Warrison_ probably something from Durex...
@@zerosd15ds43 I guess I know what this “protection” is
Here in washington the scrap yards are requiring you show your registration or title for the type of car the cat came from. Since they pay different for every cat this is a no brainer check. Shady places will still be shady but the state is working to keep them accountable.
Most of the time CATs are not sold to a local shop. They are collected by scum bags and taken them out of state and sold in bulk. The scum bags post on FB marketplace/offerup/craigslist "buying cats no questions asked" and then pack a van full of them off to another state with weak/no regulations.
Is that Washington state, or Washington dc?
@@TheLifetraveler1 Both are shit holes. So probably doesn't matter.
Another option for a deterrent is having a digital tilt sensor alongside your alarm. This would probably work for cars that are lower to the ground that require it to be jacked up. This is also a good deterrent for wheel theft.
This is easy to solve. Outlaw the recycling of sawn off catalytic converters. Make a law that you have to have the whole catalytic converter with pipe attached if you bring one to a recycler. That way you discourage this theft. If you can just cut one out of someone’s car real quick it’s not worth doing.
Or you have to provide evidence is yours like a ownership contract of the car
@@andreasstrauss5194 as stated in the video cats aren’t tied to cars via any form of identification.
Best solution I've heard.
Lmao yes ban recycling 🤣🤣
lol junkyards don't follow the law moron. How about they serialize the cats and tie them to the VIN.
This needs to be re-titled “How To Make Money Stealing Catalytic Converters” 😂
Making money for their drug problem
@@travisshuster6089 no just giving everyone brap pop when they go vroom
Well that too hahahahaha
Invest in a cat cutter to maximize efficiency.
I’m a cop and this is a huge issue! It’s literally daily we are getting reports of thefts, and finding people with them in their trunks. Mainly it’s being done here to fuel drug addictions.
OMG-your kidding!
Thank the US goverment for profitting from the drug market. Giving weapons and money to drug cartels in latin america to avoid the impending economical recession with the help of billions and billions of dollars spent in jewels, art, mansions, school fees, vehicles and of course guns bought by the narcos. And usonians do absolutely nothing to call the government out because no one cares for some drug addicts and thousands of south American deaths. Murica....
@@tommurphy4307 Just another one of the many ways that the war on drugs hurts innocent people.
@@tommurphy4307 _You're_ not "your" kidding.
When you find people with stolen cats in their trunk, let me guess, the judges lets them walk with no bail, right? How about you beating the sh!t out of the crook, knee to the neck, no need for a judge. Oh hell, just kill them (kill soft on crime judges too) the People are sick of the crime wave, the law has become useless.
I added a shield to my Prius and the neighbor's. So far so good.
@Paul S riveted, so you have to drill them out
Same
@@BillinSD what size drill bit will I need? Lol
@@selfdiscardedkingofruin7291 Big enough to drill out the 7 rivets. (Ain't nobody got time for that)
Cutting out a cat in someone's driveway is a pretty ballsy thing to do in a country swimming in firearms.
I drive a 2007 Prius and I'm on my third cat. We finally put a skid plate with security screws over it, and it's thwarted more than one person. I have two extra jack stands I my garage now lmao
Could have bought a gun for less.
Are you in Canada? I need a jack stand sir
@@Enorkyeoj you realize you have to actually catch the person in the act for that to do anything for you. When they most often come in the middle of the night and a skid plate is a passive means of defense, no need to be watching your car all night for it to help. A gun is really not the solution for this
@@Enorkyeoj lol that doesn’t help bud. You’ve got to witness it happen for a gun to come in handy 😂
And don’t get me wrong, I love my guns ♥️
Sorry that’s happened to you, huge bummer. Even in my (smaller than most) city, it’s starting to happen more and more.
Great vid. I’d barely lived in my new home a month when I caught some kids trying to steal a neighbor’s cat. I chased them down with a sledgehammer in hand. Saved the neighbors a headache… but the police waited 7 hours to respond to my crime in progress call.
“DON’T BE A SCUMBAG”
- Donut Media Proverb
instructions unclear, buying sawzall + replacement blades
@@GamrGalore3K instructions unclear, stealing your sawzall + replacement blades
@@-Sean_ that was not in the owner’s manual
@@GamrGalore3K I'll steal that too
@@-Sean_ some mighty fine theft skills you got there. it’d be a real shame if someone were to, idk…
Big fan of the random cocking sound every time Nolan pushed his glasses up.
PSA: I’m dropping the jack on whoever is stealing a catalytic converter.
Idk sounds like a felony
@@pnw_wheelies878 lmao🤡
@@pnw_wheelies878 Nah, I came out and saw that it had already happened, I swear.....
@@pnw_wheelies878 have fun with a stolen cat
@@pnw_wheelies878 It only sounds like a felony if you're caught
I had gone into a store one time with a buddy it was early into the night, about 10pm. We weren't there for very long, not even ten minutes. As we left my car wasn't running right and sounded slightly different (I have an exhaust system on it so it really didn't sound too different, just more drone) So when we got to our destination my buddy jumped under my car with a light, and sure enough you could see where they had made one cut right before the o2 sensor. Best part is I didn't have a cat lmao
#Savethecats
Sounds like someone got disappointed with a resonator at a scrap yard
It takes 2 cuts to remove.
@@joshuagibson2520 they got under there realized I didn't have one and bailed... lmao
@@natewj1077 aaah. Silly me. I see. Lol.
@@zubair-xj5mn yes! Yes they do.
I would love to catch them
One way to protect the cat:
Always leave the engine running, so the cat is nice and hot.
Even better way to protect your cat:
Don't own a car
@@XxAlex1995AlesanaXx one problem; my cat is on my headers and the bolts holding it to the resonator are so rusted they are like welded, so good luck getting it off without a saw or having to steal the entire exhaust system
or make a boobytrap
@@bart_kleijer 50.000 Volts through it
Can’t idle more than 5 min where I am
Mine just got stolen last night and I had the metal sheeting from the company you diplayed. They didn’t even cut into it. Grabbed it without cutting, breaking or bending it. Useless
How did they grab it if it was covered? You had the cat plate?
Just a anecdote, we had a series of cat thefts at my work in a secured area with fencing and locked gates etc etc. This happened to over 10+ vehicles multiple times over the last few months. They were cutting our fences and even did it while being clearly recorded on camera. Well the thief's luck ran out when he was spotted at another location by an police officer the suspect who was in the midst of cutting off a converter decided to pull out a firearm, he was shot and killed by said officer. I don't know if that specific thief was responsible for all the damage done in my area but it hasn't happened again since. It's sad to see people die over something like this but I suppose it's a sign of the times.
lol, its not even sad. the man pulled a firearm on the officer, he did it to himself, he got what was coming to him.
Kill 'em all let God sort 'em out...
batterie power tools have been a blessing and a curse to us all as that is the only tool they use to steal it happens a lot in UK were i am the worst one was batterie powered angle grinder the thing can cut the best of locks and cats in seconds.
And nothing of value was lost.
Happy ending to the story
I’ve had it happen a couple of times myself. Both times were on my trucks. I had 1997 F250 and a 1985 Chevy Scottsdale that it happened to. The F250 got hit while sitting at a shop I used to go to. The Chevy’s was ganked while sitting in my yard. The really shitty part about the Chevy was that it was a fairly new stainless exhaust system.
They need to put them in the exhaust manifolds more often, definitely way harder to take
I reckon you will find most of those are actually precats and the cat is actually downstream. They have a very similar construction and internal ceramic matrix, but no prescious metal catalysts as they require a narrow temperature band to operate most efficently which occurs further away from the exhaust ports. This is why even with best attempts to stay legal or as close to factory emissions as possible or just making a car run right when making custom exhausts can be pretty tricky, you may only have a 6" window to place oxygen sensors and cats in which may not work for other design reasons or just aesthetics so it gets put 1" out, that inch can easily mean the difference of failing emissions or worse IMO, dropping into a ""safe"" tune and rich fueling because of O2 sensor malfunction.
@@psychosis7325 not to mention how pre-cats burn valves, warp cylinder heads and even warp aluminum blocks. first clue is usually a blown head gasket.
@@tommurphy4307 true, but if thats an issue really depends on yours and the cars region. Well worth the hassle and cost for the emissions reduction to have to skim the heads at 100,000 if its only a $1000 job. Be unlucky enough to have a Renault where I am though and that turns into a $3800 job and makes ya wonder WTF anyone would import one to here for in the first place.
Like Subaru putting pre cats in the up pipe before the turbo? No way that wasn't planned obsolescence on their part and you barely see those turbo ones(Legacy GT) on the road today.
@@t436
Why does any car need a turbo? Just more performance money-waste garbage to make noise, hesitate, break, and overheat the oil.
My thoughts on the matter, because of the political climate here in California, there is no stopping thieves from stealing what are they want when they want. Remember, thieves can steal whatever they want as long as it is less than $900. And if they get arrested, they be out on the street less than 24 hours. This is what people voted for or lack thereof. Citizens need to get involved in politics and do a little bit of homework before going to the voting booth. That's just the way it is. My thoughts
Having lived through the Era of stereo theft, protecting your car against theft will result in excessive vandalism. I recall a number cars that were broken into that the owner removed the stereo faceplate, pissed of thieves would jam a screwdriver through the stereo then smash other things while they were at. Also more stereos were stolen in broad daylight in public view. My stereo was eventually stolen in my apartment's locked parking garage.
My brothers friend went shopping and a thief stole his radio in broad daylight. Not only did they steal it but also put his dash back together and locked his vehicle after the theft. He just laughed.
My car was opened one morning and they intended to steal the stereo, they damaged the door knob, the only thing of value was the stereo. I paid to take it off and put a signet to the door that the stereo had been removed and they never touched my car again ...
What you said
Everyone should know by now that the stereo face plate is in the console or the glove box. Lol.
Back in the day, I bolted the back of the receiver to an angle bracket and silicone d razor blades back there. Sure enough some scumbag attempted to steal it. I had a chewed up glove compartment and blood samples on the floor. I listened to that Alpine another five years........f those thieves.
Can we get an official notification sound of Nolan saying "DO NOT DO THIS!" so I can use it on my phone?
Ex gf calling, Amazon campaigns, credit card application calls, all apply to Nolans wisdom.
"DO NOT DO THIS!"
funny but y dont u block them, kinda curious
@@Eduardo_Espinoza you can block some ex's and be done, others are as crazy as to get a whole new number just to contact you again and it's absolutely wild like freal, same concept of the scam calls block one scam number you get like 6 different numbers for that same scam call coming
Legitimately had mine taken from my 04 Honda CR-V. Cost me $1200 and that's on a college students budget
I've had my cat stolen twice... It would be more but I waited 6 plus months to replace the second one. During the time they came into the parking lot to check to see if I replaced it. The price to replace my cat was $4200. Fortunately, my insurance replace it even though I have an older car, which did not have full coverage, however, I added comprehensive to my insurance with zero deductible (it was worth the little bit extra it costs). An important caveat is my car was in excellent shape even though it was older and had extremely low mileage for its age. But still I went months without having a car and I'm a senior so I missed many doctors appointments that I actually needed to go to because I had no transportation. The police did nothing when I reported my converter was stolen and also when I reported that the thieves were checking on it and describe their vehicle. They didn't even do a drive-by to see or hang out since my car was a great magnet for catalytic converter thefts. Oh I forgot to mention my car is in a friend of mine's garage hundreds of miles away from my house and they had an old junk car there that I'm using to this day. One day I will have my car back...
My 1st week in California, moved from Florida, my car was stolen and the they tried taking the catalytic converter off after parking it in front of the police station of the local community college. Love to see it
Talk about jumping out of the frying pan, into the fire..
Welcome to CA😎
"I guess I won't steal catalytic converters since Nolan told me four times not to." -No criminal ever
Its like the "Gun free zone" signs, they work so well for those that follow the laws...
Laws only apply to those that follow them. Money usually dominates morality in the eyes of people who want to gain, no matter the cost. Thats why criminals exist in the first place.
Worth a shot - Nolan sykes Probably.
@penguins reporting you for hate speech bud
I mean, it works against swipper
Down here in Houston its a bad problem. Had my uncle hold em at gun point til cops came to get em, no one was touching his raptor and getting away with it lol
They should be shot on site
@@12yearssober he didn't wanna stain his truck .45acp a lil messy lol btw did ya really do ittttt???
Hell Na smoke their asses
Should of put them on a wheelchair
@@Gldn1017 why is your uncle carrying with ball ammo? A proper defensive load will stop inside whomever it's shot at and you don't have to worry about causing a mess. Not to mention anyone who carries is responsible for every round that they fire and where those rounds end up.
Thanks for the orientation, dude!
I think it should be totally legal to break the knee caps of a cat thief caught in the act.
yeah, i want o keep my pets, or at least hurt anyone trying to take them.
I caught a guy stealing them off my truck and a few others. Walked out armed when he was jumping the fence. Would’ve been an illegal shot in my state, even if I were to shoot someone over a catalytic convertir. Had birdshot anyway, would’ve just peppered him up nicely.
@@jakolothagon ,,My thoughts exactly 💯!
Like way back in the day,, Rock Salt...💥
Or get them crushed
If it ain't on film it's legal
I had mine stole off my 2003 honda CRV right out of the parking lot at work. It's been a small nightmare to deal with because the cost of the repair was too high for the insurance company, so they totaled the car and I had to buy it back and put it on a salvage registration. It's been really annoying that someone would just ruin another life for like 300 dollars.
Probably less but for what is only minutes of work, it's an easy way for some to get cash.
I’m so sorry this happened to you. Someone just stole mine off my 2003 Honda Pilot last week. The repair through insurance also cost more than the value of the car and they were going to total it. I was devastated, as I’m sure you were because older Hondas are fantastic cars. Luckily, I didn’t have mine totaled in the end, but it was close. Makes me so angry these thieves ruin people’s lives just to make a quick buck. And nothing will probably happen to them unfortunately. Hang in there, and once again, I’m so sorry that happened.
This happened to my Subaru Forester last year. The engine blew a head gasket and I had it towed to a repair shop , the following day I came back with a replacement engine (as this is easier) swapped it and went on my way. I realized this later on when the car had a loud exhaust sound on cold start.Lo and behold the dudes at the repair shop cut my exhaust, stole the CAT and welded it back on !!!!!!!!!!!!. Earth is hard 😪😪
Yesterday I had dental routine work and I came out, I saw two old white cargo vans parked between my 4Ruunner 2021. So I walked hurry to my SUV, and started the engine then rolled down my window to hear any loud noise from exhaust. Lucky, it was normal sound so I reversed my SUV and parked different spot so I could have more space to look beneath the SUV. Big relief, I didn't see any missing parts.
My cat got stolen in 2017 in another city while I was clothes shopping at the mall. Insurance covered it and it costs $1900 Canadian then they found out a little later it was the mechanics shop going around and stealing them then taking the cats over to the metal
Scrap yard.
I love the sound effect whenever he adjusts his glasses 😂
@Nicholas Deangelis got any grapes?
@@R.J.M.2 that’s what she said
@Nicholas Deangelis 😂😂😂
Haha shotgun go **chuckchuck**
I actually just found out not too long ago a person I went to school with died “working on a car”. I decided to see what I could find on Google and it turns out a couple of months before he was arrested for stealing catalytic converters.
A local MX5 specialist has come up with a sheet aluminium cat cover. Aluminium gunks up those reciprocating saws and makes them useless. Pretty decent deterrent.
nice ...
sawzalls cut right thru aluminum, but a shield will make the thief move on to a different target.
Aluminum cuts easier with a saws-all than any other metal. 🤦🏻
Great explanation of this unsettling new trend. I hope government entities will step up and implement programs similar to the scrap copper ID protocols put into place years ago. I hope karma bites these thieves in the ass and drops a car on them! Thanks for this!
8:28 "The cats are in an extremely inconvenient place".
Also known as the junkyard.
My next door neighbor had his Prius cat stolen right out in front of our house. My neighbor two doors down had his stolen, and my friend had hers stolen from her driveway. A straight piped Prius is surprisingly loud. I've now installed four cat shields for Prius folks. This is nuts.
would you recommend a cat shield? mine just got stolen this morning... looking for solution.
@@juliawilson9089hey mine got stolen today in WA! Yay...
Story time:
Apparently the previous owner of the car reversed hard into something like a curb or stone and pushed the exhaust system back.
That cause part of the exhaust to be low to the ground (always scraping over humps) and another part closer to the catalytic converter to be touching the subframe.
I went to a shop and asked if they could cut, turn and weld the bent part of the exhaust, so it wouldn't scrape on humps. After having a quick look, he said that it wouldn't be so easy.
He ended up cutting out the converter, putting a similar sized pipe in place and then being able to move the exhaust enough, that it wouldn't scrape. He also said that removing the converter would let the engine breathe easier, making it feel like it had more power.
Very long story short, the 15+ year old car is now technically straight piped (and still underpowered, because it's a Corolla)
How to hit a lick in 5 mins
So the exhaust & muffler guy stole your cat right from under your nose!
So I had a car years ago and my exhaust/tail pipe got pushed hard from a high curb while turning around going in reverse. I took it to Midas, they cut the deformed pipe which was about 3 feet length cut a couple of 4" rings to slip on the cut pipes - put the new pipe up, slid the rings in place, welded 'er up and no more scraping the ground on bumpy uneven roads and railroad crossings. I still had my cat when I left the shop.
How's your check engine light? Burnt out yet?
If that shop got caught doing this, they'd be fined right OUT of business.
A really easy solution especially for car enthusiasts with lowered cars is getting air suspension. You can air it out and there would literally be no way for a thief to even jack your car up in the first place. Obviously that’s an insanely expensive solution, but either way it would still work.
How exactly is air suspension going to prevent a jack from jacking
@@chrism8180 Good luck getting a jack underneath a car that's aired out.
@@keoki_ that's fair, not that I would. But I'm pretty sure there's low profile jacks, and the car can only go so low for the exhaust and body to not be damaged. I believe the thieves typically target trucks and other vehicles that are higher off the ground
Coil overs are the only mod I've done to my daily, nice to know I pre-emptively deterred catalyst thieves by accident lol
They don't care. They have low-pro jacks to lift the whole side of a car and can do the job in less than 30 seconds in some cases. These aren't your grandpa's joggers.
@@VndNvwYvvSvv I sold my cats for hella loud exhaust before anyone else could steal it🤣
Theyll get it anyway. They will even wrap a chain around it and rip the exhaust off with a truck. The flange is the first part to break, leaving them to throw the exhaust in the back and cut it out later.
@@GoSwearingOrGoHome
Nobody normal wants to hear your horrible growling beast from over a block away. There is this thing called a muffler. At least use a good one.
@@yosefmacgruber1920 and I don’t care, I want to hear it. Who cares about nobody 🤣
I work at a Toyota dealer and I always await the sound of a catless Prius.
Nolan “dont steel cats it’s illegal”
Also nolan “straight pipe your car”
Gotta pick your battles i guess…
a vary under rated comment
But he said to straight pipe it if you live in another state. .
can't muffler delete if it's already deleted in the first place
@@saprissa9 Still Illegal to delete emissions devices.
@@nivracer not where i live
Another video suggested that you paint the Cat bright yellow before etching the VIN onto it. This would deter the thief because it would take even more time having to remove the paint. Since the CAT isn’t visible, I think this might work.
Yellow paint won't stop a thief, and it will eventually all burn off anyway. 🤦🏻
Nolan: “you have to buy a new cat”
Me: *buys steel pipe with malicious intent*
yeah just pollute the environment with CO and NOx, that'll show the government and those thieves
@@f.n.8540 bet
California would be on your case come inspection time.
@@computernerdinside lol I’m from nc we don’t have emissions inspections in my county
@@reaganriddle pollution is really no joke... we have only one earth, and it's not yours to destroy while feeling edgy