Just a heads up:

I parked my car outside the food court during lunch on the 3rd Level Gold area of the parking deck (rear 2nd level entrance to the food court) and had my catalytic converter stolen. I was only inside for 45 minutes and my car was parked two spaces before you actually get in the shade of the deck (near Belk's Men). I drive an 05 Toyota Tundra.

I was in shock that this happened at 12:30 during the lunch rush in broad daylight near the entrance to the food court.

8/7/2008 8:50:03 AM

Oh damn. Yeah this has been happening at my work too. Why the rise in these thefts?

Here's a story on it

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/3328161/

8/7/2008 8:51:41 AM

fucking people will steal any thing these days
fucking crooks

sucks man...i guess there isnt any cameras up there?

8/7/2008 8:53:10 AM

I don't know about the cameras, the "special force" of the raleigh police is looking into it (the crabtree mall police)

Looks like WRAL has been covering this a lot lately, here's two stories in the last month.

July 3rd - http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/3148955/

Quote :

"Chapel Hill, N.C. — The University of North Carolina has posted campus police officers in the Chatham County park-and-ride and Friday Center parking lots after a rash of thefts from those locations. In one week in June, 20 catalytic converters were stolen from cars parked in those lots, police said. They believe the thieves took the converters to sell for scrap. Catalytic converters contain small amounts of precious metals, including platinum, palladium and rhodium. An on-duty campus officer will keep an eye on the parked cars temporarily. The university ultimately plans to have an off-duty officer pick up the parking patrol, so that others are not pulled away from their regular assignments"

July 27 - http://www.wral.com/news/news_briefs/story/1641706/

Quote :

"Raleigh, N.C. — Thieves have stolen 17 more catalytic converters from a third automotive shop in north Raleigh, police said Friday. Seven of the devices, which are part of a vehicle's exhaust system that help reduce harmful emissions, were stolen from vehicles at Carolina Muffler and Brake at 5221 Atlantic Ave., and another 10 were taken from a scrap heap outside the shop, police said. The theft occurred sometime last weekend, police said. Thirteen catalytic converters were stolen on July 13 from vehicles awaiting repair at Foster's Auto Body at 7300 Capital Blvd., police said. The following day, 18 of the devices were taken from vehicles at J&J Automotive in the 3800 block of Capital Boulevard, police said. Investigators said they aren't sure whether the catalytic converters are being taken to be installed in other vehicles or so the thieves can recover and sell the small amounts of precious metals in the devices."

[Edited on August 7, 2008 at 8:57 AM. Reason : ]

8/7/2008 8:56:18 AM

Most people probably wouldn't question it if they saw someone fiddling around underneath a truck, at least during the daytime. No one would think there's something worth stealing down there.

8/7/2008 8:59:41 AM

Quote :

"Oh damn. Yeah this has been happening at my work too. Why the rise in these thefts?"

Because they contain platinum and can be melted down and sold for $texas

http://www.cashforconverters.com/index.shtml



[Edited on August 7, 2008 at 9:14 AM. Reason : link]

8/7/2008 9:09:32 AM

amounts for different types of converters per that site:

Quote :

"Double GM 82.00 Large Foreign 120.00 Small Foreign 82.00 AC / Saturn 51.00 After Market 7.00 Cast Iron 28.00 Domestic Pre-Cat 14.00 Double Plug Pellet 29.00 Extra Large Honeycomb 65.00 Foreign Pre-Cat 28.00 Jumbo Pellet 65.00 Large Exotic 200.00 Large Honeycomb 50.00 Large Steel (Foil) 25.00 Low Grade Foreign 28.00 Regular Pellet 20.00 Small Exotic 135.00 Small Honeycomb 40.00 Small Steel (Foil) 10.00 Truck 40.00"

8/7/2008 9:18:48 AM

^ and that site is probably lowballing because they will resell them. You can probably get even more for them from other sources.

8/7/2008 9:22:49 AM

i have been googling how to extract the precious metals and its not average joe type of process.

8/7/2008 9:30:50 AM

SUVs FTL

8/7/2008 9:42:06 AM

That's what will happen if I see someone messing with my car!!!!

8/7/2008 9:58:24 AM

This stuff as well as copper and gas thefts have really pissed me off lately. People are doing hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of damage to get $30-$250 worth of materials. Aftermarket cats aren't that expensive, but getting one from a dealer (installed) will probably run you $1000.

If I see someone under one of my vehicles with a drill or a sawzall you better believe they are about to get medical bills far in excess of whatever they were after.

8/7/2008 10:00:25 AM

^ meth is a hell of a drug

8/7/2008 10:04:04 AM

insurance is covering this whether i go to the dealer or go to my mechanic. It's crazy how desperate and selfish some people are:

Quote :

"People are doing hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of damage to get $30-$250 worth of materials"

8/7/2008 10:10:12 AM

The worst is the copper thefts from homes. A friend of my parents is a plumber, so he's replacing tons of copper in homes that have been gutted. Most of them are vacant homes that were recently built or are for sale. In some cases the water is still turned on and it's doing $10k+ in damages.

Oh, and don't forget the guy who stole the copper cores from two air conditioning units at a church.

8/7/2008 10:14:35 AM

that's what you pussies get for having catalytic converters clogging up your exhaust.

8/7/2008 10:19:02 AM

My sister was one of the people who had theirs stolen in the UNC Friday Center Park&Ride.

She drives a Toyota Highlander, so it must have been fairly easy to get underneath with a sawzall.

The funny thing is that the cat on a highlander is up next to the exhaust manifold so the stupid thief took the resonator (basically just a box) and not the catalytic converter.


Oh and one of the cars that got hit the same day (I think it was 7 in the one lot on one day) was a cadillac CTS or something - so they are not all SUVs. Meth addicts are skinny.

[Edited on August 7, 2008 at 10:24 AM. Reason : .]

8/7/2008 10:22:36 AM

TT&E will give you around $75 for a cat. pretty good money for somebody and the metal recycling places tend to look the other way when they show up with 10 or 20 of them.

I've been junking some cars with a friend and sometimes you see folks up there with a truck load of shiny copper or a bunch of cats.



[Edited on August 7, 2008 at 10:23 AM. Reason : ..]

8/7/2008 10:22:43 AM

what the hell? you can probably buy a brand new generic, universal cat for about that price.

8/7/2008 10:24:51 AM

Is it really meth heads pulling this crap?

8/7/2008 10:30:25 AM

well, thats typically for OEM stuff. I think there's more platinum in those.

8/7/2008 10:32:24 AM

Yup, OEM ones are where the $$$ is.

8/7/2008 10:40:35 AM

i just want some bling, ok

WHAT UP COLTER!?!

8/7/2008 10:42:03 AM

Quote :

"Oh, and don't forget the guy who stole the copper cores from two air conditioning units at a church."

what about the sorry fucks who ripped the wiring right out of the walls of a church? don't remember where it happened, but there were just big rips right up the sheetrock.

8/7/2008 10:57:41 AM

Quote :

"Is it really meth heads pulling this crap?"

Usually when someone steals shit from people and sells it they are doing so to support some sort of drug habit.

[Edited on August 7, 2008 at 11:25 AM. Reason : better wording]

8/7/2008 11:24:43 AM

Drugs or not its just easy tax free cash. Some people are lazy

8/7/2008 11:28:53 AM

you better be on some type of meth or have some really good gloves to pull a cat off a car on a 90 something degree day that was just parked.

8/7/2008 11:34:05 AM

They are stealing them out here in oregon too. Strange

8/7/2008 11:55:19 AM

^^ My first thought. Someone must have put a lot of planning into this, because that thing would burn the living shit out of any normal person if you grabbed one that was freshly parked.

8/7/2008 1:40:48 PM

I’ve been following this b/c I have a Tundra.
Some cities have started offering catalytic converter engraving.

http://www.wcnc.com/news/topstories/stories/wcnc-051608-mw-catalyticconverter.107293984.html

8/7/2008 1:50:18 PM

^^ Welding gloves FTW.

Seriously though, I will fucking injure you if I see you trying to steal catalytic converters from anyone. Let's just say after that, the next place you steal copper from had better have a handicap ramp.

8/7/2008 1:52:58 PM

o noes, not a tuff guy from the internet!

8/7/2008 2:08:01 PM

^
i was gonna say the same thing.

8/7/2008 2:09:06 PM

yeah they got a few (dozen or so) near my shop about a year ago

luckily most of my customers dont have cats on their car

8/7/2008 3:19:15 PM

we had about $2500 (cost new, not the scrap prices) worth of copper pipe stolen from one of our jobsites over 4th of july weekend. shit was already installed, not just laying around. fortunately the dumbasses didn't wait another 2 weeks, when they could've tripled their take.

remind me of one time when an owners rep told us how she was riding by a project a long time ago and saw some guys inside doing demo, and thought "oh the contractor is getting a jump on interior demo". turned out they were stealing everything they could fit in their truck.

8/7/2008 3:19:39 PM

bitches will steal anything. I think I'll just rig it up where if someone tries to take mine, the truck blows up. kinda like when you buy a bug zapper and hear that bzzzz sound, you know you got the little fuckers.

[Edited on August 7, 2008 at 4:09 PM. Reason : ]

8/7/2008 4:04:57 PM

The people who stole the light poles in Cary a year or so back were the best. Like 40 fuckin light poles.. gone.

8/7/2008 6:20:03 PM

I wonder if all these thefts will push the price of platinum down

8/7/2008 6:32:40 PM

Quote :

"Oh, and don't forget the guy who stole the copper cores from two air conditioning units at a church."

not as bad as stealing from a church, but probably dumber:

we have people stealing our copper grounding wires from our substations. they also will cut other cables that aren't energized at the time.

8/7/2008 6:57:19 PM

Quote :

"Oh, and don't forget the guy who stole the copper cores from two air conditioning units at a church."

there was a guy recently that was shot b/c of that. i'm guessing it was in a state that allows you to protect your property with force though.

8/7/2008 8:54:26 PM

dude i took a report on that today, some dude tried to but didnt get it out of a truck and sedan. we are seeing a LOT of these crimes as of late

8/7/2008 9:52:21 PM

Quote :

"The people who stole the light poles in Cary a year or so back were the best. Like 40 fuckin light poles.. gone. "

Where exactly did this happen? I never heard about it

8/7/2008 10:31:09 PM

Yeah, copper tubing and pipe thefts are outrageous, but this has been going on for quite some time. My relative is a general contractor and he has had to start practically waiting until the house is sold before installing the central air unit because of how much he was losing in the copper thefts and replacing it, just to be stolen again. They then started stealing the entire AC unit. This has been going on for at least 2 years for him.


I feel bad for you, DonMega, that really sucks.

[Edited on August 7, 2008 at 11:28 PM. Reason : ]

8/7/2008 11:28:05 PM

I'm so sick of this metal stealing shit. Goddamnit!

8/7/2008 11:33:13 PM

Other than engraving, are there ways to stop this shit?

8/7/2008 11:50:11 PM

engraving wont help because they sell it straight to the scrap heap, and i promise the scrap heap just tosses it in the pile without looking.

8/7/2008 11:58:02 PM

^^http://www.catclamp.com/catclamp.asp is what I've heard of...dunno how effective it'd be, though.

8/8/2008 12:47:08 AM

crabtree mall security is ineffective. their police force isn't allowed to carry guns for cryin out loud.

they have poor lighting all around, no cameras where they need them, fewer officers to patrol more spots, etc...

are you really surprised that someone could stay under your (and others) car for 10 mins and no one notice?

if it were outside your house, then yes i would be like

Quote :

"Wessell has insurance, but the cost to replace a catalytic converter is not cheap. He is expecting to pay about $3,500."

unless his deductible is $5000, i believe his INSURANCE will pick up the tab.

[Edited on August 8, 2008 at 12:50 AM. Reason : wh]

8/8/2008 12:48:26 AM

Quote :

"Other than engraving, are there ways to stop this shit?"

live in a place with no minorities

[Edited on August 8, 2008 at 12:55 AM. Reason : ]

8/8/2008 12:54:40 AM

Campus police have said there have been a bunch of Cat thefts this summer, somebody snagged my technicians, when she was parked in the B lot by Kilgore.

8/8/2008 1:57:55 AM