thieves

[T-water]

I had my catalytic converter cut off my truck on friday night, the truck was parked right in front of my house. I've heard that Toyota's are targeted for this kind of theft, gonna cost over $1000.00 to get all the work done. So my question is does anybody know off any reliable theft deterant for this kind of stealing?

[ccarlson]

If you have comprehensive coverage on your auto insurance policy, it should be covered minus your deductible. Be sure to call your agent to check your policy.

The best theft deterrent is to garage the vehicle if at all possible. Insurance companies like to see vehicles that are garaged because it also prevents hail damage and other forms of theft and this keeps rates reasonable for us all. Too many claims of this nature could affect your rates or insurability with standard insurance. Usually not a problem, but a potential situation if it happens several times within a few years time.

Many insurance companies base your auto insurance rate on your house or garaging location. As you would suspect, some areas are more susceptible to vandalism, theft, and even auto accidents than other areas of the state so rates vary accordingly which is a good thing for the average consumer.

ccarlson

[Shack]

None as of now.

Short of mounting razor blades around the cut off area's I do not know what to do. Someone I know had this done a couple weeks back and they where in the same situation as you.

The razor blade thing came around from a buddy of mine who was having his car stereo stolen almost weekly when he lived in St. Paul. He Super Glued razor blades to the back of the deck and taped them on the harness wires. They did try to steal his stereo one more time, they got it, but at a bloody price. He informed a couple neighbors on what he had did and they followed suite. Theft in the whole neighborhood slowed down big time after this. This was also in the early nineties, when criminals suing because of things like this was not a well known thing.

I talked with my friend and he was going to try tying razor blades with mechanics wire around the pipe and surrounding floor boards. He also was going to pop rivet razor blades on to the heat shield of the new converter. Very crude, possibly effective, but you run the risk of being sued by the thief.

Now, wondering what to do about being sued, we also talked about making a small vinyl sticker and placing in one of the windows. This would be a disclaimer as to the theft deterrent device and also to explain the owner would not beheld responsible. I do not know if this would work, but would be worth talking to a lawyer about first.

At first, we thought about a small sticker placed in the lower left corner of the windshield by the vin number, so a would be service advisor would see it, but as not to let the thieves know blatantly what was down their so they would not work around them. This spawned into another idea that came to mind that would not involve possible legal action towards the owner. Make bigger vinyl stickers and place them on three sides (left,right and rear) of the vehicle that state some thing to the effect of “Catalytic Convert Protected By High Voltage While Vehicle Is Parked”. Make it look professional as possible. Now of course, this would be a rouse, but could make the would be thieves second guess and move on. I mean, who is going to want to crawl under the vehicle and find out if this is true or not ?

I have had my mind of the grindstone for awhile and might come up with something else and let you know.

What ever you do, make sure you notify any repair facility of your enhancements prior to them working on your vehicle.

Good luck!

[Shack]

ccarlson,

The garage thing is a great idea and should be used if at all possible.

These thieves are targeting every place they can get away with this. My friend does not have the option of a garage, because he lives in an apartment. This is where they stole his catalytic converter.

I also read a thread on FM about thieves targeting Metro area boat launches. They must find a tucked away launch, monitor and after the owner launches, they know they have all the time in the world. Before I had heard of this occurring at launch’s, I would never second guess a person under a vehicle in the parking lot during they day. I figured I would bring this up to spread the word.

[caseymcq]

There is a product called a CatClamp, made by American Welding Inc. that is made to prevent this type of theft. If you google CatClamp you will see it. It costs about $225. Might be worth it.

Palladium is about $450/oz., Platinum is over $2000/oz. and Rhodium is over $7000/oz. These are metals used in catylitic converters. The thief probably got $300 or better for the metals out of the converter.

[Shack]

I have seen the Cat Clamp also and I think it is a waste of money.

The theives will still cut both ends of the exhaust pipe off and then have your (Starting at) $225.oo Cat Clamp to boot .

I am sure the theives can get a couple extra bucks with the alloy aircraft metal when they bring it back to their shop and cut it off .

Plus I am sure this thing brings about unwanted noise, for a hefty price tag.

[Jeremy airjer W]

Maplewood toyota has been hit a couple of times and more than just a couple of trucks.

T-water do you happen to have a salsa red Tundra? If you do I may have an explanation on a rude gesture that you may have recieved from a coworker of mine

I like the razor blades on the back of the stereo. We had a few Saturday nights of multiple vehicles getting broken into and radio's stolen last summer. I have a pretty good idea of who it was but I bet if his hands where wrapped up in bandages there would be some pretty good evidence! If you broke into several cars over a couple of weekends are you going to sue somebody and get caught?

[Jeremy airjer W]

Why not wrap/tack some nice heavy chain to the pipes. Once they see the extra work to cut through the chain it may be enough of a deterrent to keep them away?

[Shack]

Quote:

If you broke into several cars over a couple of weekends are you going to sue somebody and get caught?

Ya never know now-a-days !

That was a hoot when my buddy did this. All I will say is there was blood every where LOL ! He said it was worth the clean up and stains. Lucky he never got hepatitis, but he never lost another stereo on that block again. He was slightly worried about retaliation for a short while, but nothing happened and that notion faded pretty quickly.

Totally off subject, but about 3-4 years ago I ran into a situation I almost used the razor blade method on. I run a landscape materials hauling thing on the side. I had a great thing going for me with some custom made signs (Wood and hand painted) I would place out on spots Friday afternoon and pick up Sunday evening. Well, at that time competition was a little fierce around here and my custom hand made signs would be uprooted, destroyed or taken. I lost about 7 signs and it took me a couple hours to make each of them. I came close to fixing them with razor blades, but the idea of getting sued out weighed the thought of loosing a sign. So the thinking cap went on and I tried to think of the next worst thing you could get on your hands while pulling up the post or touching the sign. It came quick and it was something I had unlimited access to. It was Anti-Seize . This stuff does not go away, even after you wash up. So, I plastered every sign I had set out that faithful weekend with Anti-Seize all over the base, post and back of sign. I would set the sign, put on rubber gloves and just apply a very thick coat of this stuff. Needless to say, I did not loose a sign that weekend or ever since. I did have 3 signs that had signs of someone pulling or picking them up, because they used the front area of the sign to wipe their hands and I could see where the thick coating had come off on the posts while they tried to pull up on the sign. Since then, I just paint the signs grey first and then do the painting of the litterateur on the front .

I still have great thoughts to this day of them looking at the stain on the head liner, seat, door panel or their thoughts of their shirt or pants they ruined that night I will make 50 signs to get that

I do not think this would work on catalytic converters or stereo’s thou.

[Valv]

It's getting worse and worse all the times.

Beware leaving your pickup truck (especially diesel) parked for a long time, especially Park N Ride. Thieves drill a hole into plastic fuel tank and drain fuel out. Damage is expensive.

Good news one got "punished" by a spark from his drill, and caught on fire. Extensive burns all over his body, and the truck was a total loss.

[pinkfloyd4ever]

Unbelieveable that you have to think about getting sued by a theif because you took extra steps to protect your own valuables.

[Jeremy airjer W]

We had to call a truce at our shop because the anti-seize "war" was getting out of hand!

[T-water]

Thanks for the response guys. You know generally I'm a liberal guy and I don't like to think the worst about people but when I get my stuff messed with it makes me tart thinking real angry revenge laden thoughts! My truck is a 95 4runner, I talked to person at work who said they know someone with a 4runner who had theirs stolen 3 times. I'm sort of at a loss if it happens again I think I'll sell the truck and et and old jeep!

Anybody else know anything about the cat clamp?

[Hafnutz]

Back when CB radios were all the rage (yeah I'm that old) They were a hot item for the thieves. I ran a coiled up electrical cord with with a plug on the end of it and connected the wires inside the radio to the outer housing. I hope whoever got that one lit up for a second before the fuse in the house blew

[Jim Almquist]

I have been reading this and find some of the deterrents quite funny and reminds me of a guy from Iowa who roomed across the hall when I was in the army and every now and then he would hook up a pretty good size capacitor to his door knob just for fun. The thing would darn near knock you to the ground and all would hear is him just laughing from behind the door. Now if you could just hook one of these up to the converter so when the guy puts the saw on the pipe and gets a 300 to 400 volt shock I would think that the headache alone would make him want to stop and if he touches it again and gets same shock unless he knows how to discharge it would make him want quit while he was alive. Make me wonder if I am giving out my million dollar idea with out a patent

[jwhjr]

Unbelieveable that you have to think about getting sued by a theif because you took extra steps to protect your own valuables.

That's a head scratcher for me as well

[Jeremy airjer W]

he would hook up a pretty good size capacitor to his door knob just for fun.

Every new guy we hire gets to find out what those are!

[Shack]

Originally Posted By: yopaulypinkfloyd

Unbelieveable that you have to think about getting sued by a theif because you took extra steps to protect your own valuables.

That's a head scratcher for me as well

Again, now-a-days when you intentionally do something to cause harm, when if you had not done what you did (even with a thief)they would have not gotten harmed with out letting them know in some fashion about what you did , you just never know.

I would say it would not fall into the category of self defense like in a home invasion, but more like placing spikes in a trespassers path to prevent him/her from crossing, with putting up a sign about the spikes. I thought I have also heard of unarmed robbers in homes getting shot by the owner and trying to sue??

I am sure nothing would happen, as long as the thief did not get caught at the hospital. If a thief gets caught after being harmed, I am sure suing the owner would be brought up to possibly get the charges dropped.

Welcome to the 21st century

[fishinJohn]

Some car alarms have the ability to page you. Then you can come to your vehicle "prepared" how you see fit.