Stinking thieves

[gunman42782]

So my son had a shredded tire Saturday night going to work, and left his vehicle on the side of the road on 65N before the Brooks exit. When we went to his vehicle, someone had busted out his window, used his jack to jack up the car, and stole his cadalitic convertors. Yeah, it had two. Lets just say I hope the person or persons that did this get what they deserve.

 

[contender]

I hope your son's insurance covers this.

If a thief would work as hard at a real job as they do stealing,, they'd be miles ahead of things. But sadly, they often want the "quick buck" without actually being a responsible person. Steal something, and loaf until they find another item to steal.

Worthless O2 thieves. They should be seriously prosecuted when caught, so others might not want to be so inclined. Severe punishment has always been an effective deterrent to many who MIGHT have thought about committing a crime.
Not perfect,, but very effective.
Nowadays,, the lack of fear of prosecution etc causes a lot of thugs to say; "Hey, easy quick money & I ain't gonna get punished."

I grew up hearing stories about how a thief in Turkey, when caught, would get his dominant hand, (usually the right hand) cut off. That meant he had to eat and wipe with just one hand. Plus, it let the public know he was or had been a thief. I always thought about how effective that had to have been.

 

[buckaroo]

Yeah, the thieves are everywhere out here and the bone yards who buy this stuff are just as responsible. I live in a predominately senior apt. complex and somebody came through and stole a tire off one of the gals cars parked in the underneath parking area of the building. I went and bought wheel locks for mine base off a suggestion from another tenant.

Now the latest I read around is people are siphoning gas. It's all sort of mind boggling how in just a couple of years or so it's all gone to hell in the country.

 

[eveled]

Too bad the car didn’t fall off the jack.

Cordless tools make it easy to cut converters or anything else off. They have made it impossible to lock anything.

The worst part it cost $2000 to fix what they did and they get $100 for it.

 

[Mobuck]

Son should have had a spare.

 

[hittman]

Yeah that really stinks ….. hindsight being what it is, a tow truck bill would have been cheap.

 

[eveled]

Son should have had a spare.

That’s true, but doesn’t make stealing from him ok. I don’t like to place blame on the victim.

 

[gunman42782]

Son should have had a spare.

He did have a spare. It was night and he was going to be late for work. He got a ride from another co worker. When we got there,the next morning, the tire was shredded, and the car sit so low to the ground that I couldn't even get a jack under it. Had to call the tow truck anyway.

 

[hittman]

 

[57springer]

Converter theft is getting big here in central Pa. Car lots especially getting hit .

 

[Joe Reilly]

Too bad the car didn’t fall off the jack.

Cordless tools make it easy to cut converters or anything else off. They have made it impossible to lock anything.

The worst part it cost $2000 to fix what they did and they get $100 for it.

It did a couple weeks ago in Spokane WA. Hanging exhaust and saw laying there with the corpse.

 

[Danjet500]

These two got theirs.

 

[JPGLSG1234]

People like these should be hunt down and disposed of...If in the right circumstances, if you were present and caught off guard, they would leave you lying in the street or where ever. They need to be treated the same....

 

[eveled]

 

[cowboycopus]

I grew up hearing stories about how a thief in Turkey, when caught, would get his dominant hand, (usually the right hand) cut off. That meant he had to eat and wipe with just one hand. Plus, it let the public know he was or had been a thief. I always thought about how effective that had to have been.

Now days we would have lots of people with NO hands.

 

[eveled]

IDK. Once you chopped the first one off the rest would smarten up.

 

[blume357]

I don't disagree with the need for punishment but the real solution is to return to bringing up children with a sense of right and wrong. I have to admit, probably shouldn't, but I am not always the most law abiding citizen.... but my one main belief in life is to do one's best to do no harm. I go in people's homes everyday and often with no one there.... stealing from them is not in my job description. Over the years I've been to a home and come back a few weeks later and the folks have told me that something was missing or they had been broken into and I flat out tell them they need to mention my name as one of the folks who's been to their house recently. This is because if I was a thief then it would show up as a red flag to investigators if I had been to several homes that had been robbed. Now to just throw it out, our big problem in Greenville is thieves going in cars at night, actually early in the a.m. Looking for cars left unlocked and one guy walks the neighborhood checking car doors and another follows in a car. I still don't understand why this can't be fixed... If I was driving through a neighborhood at 2;00 in the morning I would not have a problem with an LEO pulling me over and getting my I.D. and asking what the heck I was doing out at that time.

 

[Acorn]

Locally there was a fleet of mini busses stripped of their catalytic converters.
I heard there were 25 vehicles hit.
A lady told me her son's cat was taken while he was in a convenience store.

 

[louiethelump]

What in the world is the market for the converters? I am in Florida and the catalytic converter thing went away 25 years ago. I put 265,000 miles on a Toyota truck and it never needed even a muffler much less a converter. What is driving the market in PA????

Serious question seeking serious answer. We get northerners here every year and the ones from PA talk of converter thefts. Why there but not here???

 

[black1970]

You guys can go on and on about the deterrents to these crimes but you are pissing in the wind. You are not going to fix the breakdown of the American family. If at all possible it would take several generations. These thugs do not fear the law because they know that IF caught there will be just a slap on the wrist. Col. Cooper got it right when he said stuff like this will not stop until the thug FEARS THE VICTIM. I used to think this ship could be turned around but now I have very serious reservations about it. I fear the only solution is the perps just won’t show up for breakfast if you get my drift.

 

[g5m]

There was a group of two men and a woman around here taking them out of cars in parking lots. Police finally caught them. They were selling them for about $150 and replacement costs for the car owner ran $1500-$2000. Apparently when you're an experienced thief you can remove them in about a minute.

 

[Dave P.]

I know I've posted this before to a similar thread. We came out of a late game at a local rink and caught a guy stealing the cat off a teammate's truck.
I'm sure he regretted his choice for at least a month or so. About a third of a hockey team ( with sticks! ) surrounding the truck you've crawled under
is not a good place to be, he was dinged up up bit by the time the local cops and a couple of Michigan State troopers came to rescue him.
Basically any time he tried to escape he was "restrained". Cops found a bunch of cats in his vehicle. He did a plea to something and none of us even had
to go to court for a trial, nothing was ever said about his injuries.

 

[Teddydogno1]

What I have heard from auto guys is that they cats are loaded into containers and shipped overseas. There they are broken down for the rare metals they contain (platinum, rhodium, etc.). Local junk yards are usually not involved, these days.

Rob

 

[harley08]

I hope your son's insurance covers this.

If a thief would work as hard at a real job as they do stealing,, they'd be miles ahead of things. But sadly, they often want the "quick buck" without actually being a responsible person. Steal something, and loaf until they find another item to steal.

Worthless O2 thieves. They should be seriously prosecuted when caught, so others might not want to be so inclined. Severe punishment has always been an effective deterrent to many who MIGHT have thought about committing a crime.
Not perfect,, but very effective.
Nowadays,, the lack of fear of prosecution etc causes a lot of thugs to say; "Hey, easy quick money & I ain't gonna get punished."

I grew up hearing stories about how a thief in Turkey, when caught, would get his dominant hand, (usually the right hand) cut off. That meant he had to eat and wipe with just one hand. Plus, it let the public know he was or had been a thief. I always thought about how effective that had to have been.

They should also cut of his nuts!

 

[bowserb]

These two got theirs.

Did they? Looks like they got pointed at but not shot. But what if they did? That seems risky to me. The thieves might have been armed and shot back with real bullets. An off duty policeman in Houston caught converter thieves and was shot and killed by the thieves. Also clear from the video is that full size SUVs may be easier targets, since their high ground clearance allowed the crooks in the video to work without raising the vehicle. Also in the video the SUV was parked in the driveway. We park our cars in our garage at least limiting access to them by thieves when we're at home.

One other consideration. Leaving a car on the side of the road overnight seems like asking for trouble. If you can't always risk getting dirty with a tire change, consider getting AAA. Note I'm not defending the perps. My first choice would be the thieves caught, then shot dead when they pointed a gun at the police.

BTW, these thieves area really LOSERS. It took two men plus a getaway driver and a car. How much is a cat converter worth? What's the effective hourly rate of pay, and consider they could be arrested or shot by a car owner.

 

[mexicanjoe]

Hook up a 10 mile electric fence charger to the vehicle, sparks will fly !

 

[jimbo1096]

Had two vehicles parked at the front of my house on the street, my Dodge truck and a Tahoe that was my daughters. Both had their catalytic converter stolen. Police reports made and there was a saws-all blade found under the Tahoe. Cop didn't even bother with it. There was one person found that was linked to a series of these thefts but he was back out after a month. Never was Sure if he was responsible for mine or not.

 

[Joe Chartreuse]

Too bad the car didn’t fall off the jack.

Cordless tools make it easy to cut converters or anything else off. They have made it impossible to lock anything.

The worst part it cost $2000 to fix what they did and they get $100 for it.

Depends on the converter. The part that's valuable is, of course, the platinum. Some converters have a whole lot more than others. Also- and this is the reason these crimes faded for awhile- the platinum market currently sucks. Platinum used to be half again or more valuable than gold. Now it's less than half the value, which is ridiculous because it is about 50 times rarer and has 20 times the uses. If you buy an ounce of platinum today you have to wait until the market goes up a hundred or two before you can sell it just to break even. Market manipulation at it's finest.
BTW, the amount of platinum range in in converters is around 3-7 GRAMS. Today's market is at $29.53 per gram, making the market value of the theft between $88.59 to 206.71. But that is market value. They won't actually get more than around 80% of that. I don't see it as worth the work unless done in bulk.

 

[AZcigarman]

What in the world is the market for the converters? I am in Florida and the catalytic converter thing went away 25 years ago. I put 265,000 miles on a Toyota truck and it never needed even a muffler much less a converter. What is driving the market in PA????

Serious question seeking serious answer. We get northerners here every year and the ones from PA talk of converter thefts. Why there but not here???

They don't use the converters, they open them and take out the rare metals like platinum, rhodium and palladium that act to break down chemicals that pollute in the exhaust. Since the metals "catalyze" the chemical process (thence the name) they do not break down and so even old cats are worth $$.

 

[daka]

IDK. Once you chopped the first one off the rest would smarten up.

It wouldn't take more than a few to GET THE MESSAGE ACROSS