Copper theives, move over for Platinum theives

[Head Shot]

Erased

 

[notazombie]

The real thief is the repair shop charging $2,000 for a 20 minute repair.

As a former tech who got out primarily due to income limitations, I'd like to learn more about this. If I could have been making $6000/hr, I might have been convinced to stay. Tell me more.

 

[Red98422]

I feel sorry if the poor bastards try to get mine...all that work and they'll find a nice "test pipe" for their troubles.

 

[jbett98]

As a former tech who got out primarily due to income limitations, I'd like to learn more about this. If I could have been making $6000/hr, I might have been convinced to stay. Tell me more.

A generic replacement, plus two small pieces of straight pipe welded is less then $425.00.

 

[notazombie]

I feel like there's probably more to the story but we're kind of going off on a tangent from the original topic.



Probably around 10 years ago I took about a dozen in to Schnitzer for a buddy. They wouldn't buy them until they called his listed number from the phone book and verified with the owner that I was on legit business.
The last shop I worked for had a cat buyer that came through about twice a year. As of a couple years ago you needed to be an "approved recycler" to sell cats to scrap yards. That's not to say that many "approved" guys weren't acquiring inventory from smurfs. But at least there was a bit of an effort to weed out the criminals.

 

[teflon6string]

I know it will never happen but I would be all for public caning. Might make a few of them find a new line of work

+1 on caning for various crimes. Perfect for petty theft, and IMHO, should include vandalism (spray paint "tagging").

I've not confirmed this, but I read somewhere years ago that a standard "caning team" in Singapore includes a medic to revive unconscious recipients between licks so they don't miss out on any of the festivities.

 

[ajgunner]

I think you miss spelled Caning---pretty sure it is spelled HANGING.

 

[RicInOR]

This has been going on here for decades. They sell a tool to make quick work of cutting them off. I have long said the real problem here is the scrap yards. When some meth heads come in with a few new ones for sale they have to know they are buying stolen and just don't care. Last I heard they were giving them something like $50 each for them so of course the meth heads loved it.

What about 12 - 13 years ago I worked security. We had the thieves come in and roll up next to parked cars - especially those CUV/SUV type, get out, use a pipe cutter, grab the converter and go. Corporate parking lot.

 

[Nick Burkhardt]

They are here...

Police arrest duo accused of stealing catalytic converter from Portland car dealership

Portland police say they’ve seen a “dramatic increase” in reported catalytic converter thefts in recent months. The car parts contain valuable metals.

www.kgw.com

 

[titsonritz]

They are here...

Police arrest duo accused of stealing catalytic converter from Portland car dealership

Portland police say they’ve seen a “dramatic increase” in reported catalytic converter thefts in recent months. The car parts contain valuable metals.

www.kgw.com

Something tells me this duo has done more dirt cutting out catalytic converters from vehicle they don'y own. The system will no doubt give them a pass and I will ultimately be proven right.

 

[shibbershabber]

There is no way at all this could ever happen around here....

I mean, the law says you have to show ID at the scrap yard

 

[CamoDeafie]

Get a fab shop to weld an ar500 panel "skid plate" to the bottom of your vehicle

 

[Alexx1401]

There is no way at all this could ever happen around here....

I mean, the law says you have to show ID at the scrap yard

I have long said the places buying stuff like this are the real problem. If they went after them HARD this would stop. If the meth heads could not sell the damn stuff they would not bother to steal it any more.

 

[Mikej]

The guy on the left is a former neighbor. We've known him since 2001 when we bought this house. He owned a house 61/2 blocks away on our street. He was good friends with our neighbors and their kids growing up in this hood. He had a successful yard maintenance business. He got hit in his car by a drunk driver, if I recall, and messed up his back. He wasn't able to work and it took some time for a settlement to come in. In the mean time he lost his house. I don't know where he went during that time as the neighbors kid grew up and got a job, so we didn't see Andy much. The story goes, he got his settlement, got to partying, and ended up living in the zombie house three doors over that I had spoke of before, that took us three years to get the trash out of. I started this thread Any body have people like this in their hood? OR,........ This house is where Andy came and went from back in October 2018. The "Kid" who STILL lived there had previously live with his mom, brother and sister until mom got into drugs and defaulted on the loan. That truck was his at that time. Long gone now. Wifey sees him, and the other kid that finally got booted from the zombie house, in the hood from time to time. Neither one of them are allowed in the store anymore due to shop lifting.

It gets me to thinking how close people can be to losing everything. And don't get into the hard bubblegum man. Out of the three boys that were good buddies in their mid/late teens 20 years ago, only one is working, has a great gal and a young child, and saving for their first home.

 

[Alexx1401]

The guy on the left is a former neighbor. We've known him since 2001 when we bought this house. He owned a house 61/2 blocks away on our street. He was good friends with our neighbors and their kids growing up in this hood. He had a successful yard maintenance business. He got hit in his car by a drunk driver, if I recall, and messed up his back. He wasn't able to work and it took some time for a settlement to come in. In the mean time he lost his house. I don't know where he went during that time as the neighbors kid grew up and got a job, so we didn't see Andy much. The story goes, he got his settlement, got to partying, and ended up living in the zombie house three doors over that I had spoke of before, that took us three years to get the trash out of. I started this thread Any body have people like this in their hood? OR,........ This house is where Andy came and went from back in October 2018. The "Kid" who STILL lived there had previously live with his mom, brother and sister until mom got into drugs and defaulted on the loan. That truck was his at that time. Long gone now. Wifey sees him, and the other kid that finally got booted from the zombie house, in the hood from time to time. Neither one of them are allowed in the store anymore due to shop lifting.

It gets me to thinking how close people can be to losing everything. And don't get into the hard bubblegum man. Out of the three boys that were good buddies in their mid/late teens 20 years ago, only one is working, has a great gal and a young child, and saving for their first home.

It is sad when that happens to people but, the drugs is still a personal choice. The losing the job due to no fault of your own, yes that could happen to anyone. Happens to a lot of people who do not start taking meth though. Since he was once a productive person all you can do is hope maybe he will beat the odds and stop in time. Many get heavily into that crap and when they hit bottom will finally stop and clean things up. Sadly far too many never do come back

 

[Lesliet]

"The real thief is the repair shop charging $2,000 for a 20 minute repair."


Old thread, I know, but here's the deal on that: Yes, you can get a cheap, aftermarket replacement cat. They are a lot more work to install correctly on some cars, and my experience is that they tend to fail at about the one year mark. If you want everything to fit right, and not rattle or rub, it takes around an hour to fit up the new cat, tack it, pull the whole pipe down and carefully weld it so there are no leaks. The alternative, if you want one that lasts more like 10 years ( and from the shop's point of view, isn't going to result in a warranty come-back in a year) , is to get the factory cat from the dealer. If we're talking about the "Y" pipe from the manifolds, often with 2-4 cats in it as a one piece deal, the part alone may cost $1800.

 

[Tony617]

People were stealing catalytic converters from cars at a place where I worked years ago. Do not confront them since you never know if they are armed or not is what we were told. Besides you cannot shoot them for stealing anyways.

 

[shibbershabber]

People were stealing catalytic converters from cars at a place where I worked years ago. Do not confront them since you never know if they are armed or not is what we were told. Besides you cannot shoot them for stealing anyways.

Can you just sneak up on them and release the jack? Hahaha

 

[raftman]

Can you just sneak up on them and release the jack? Hahaha

Haha unfortunately they're mostly too clever and prefer to target vehicles already high enough off the ground to get under without lifting.