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Police investigating rash of auto parts thefts, cat con... - 7/29/2010 9:33:59 AM   
pahunkboy


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Police investigating rash of auto parts thefts in Lower Paxton Township
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RE: Police investigating rash of auto parts thefts, cat... - 7/29/2010 9:59:38 AM   
soul2share


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Sorry, dude, this is waaaaay old news all over the country.  They've been doing this in AZ for well over 2 years.

The reason they get away with it is that no one thinks it's unusual for someone to be "working" on a car, even in a public parking lot.  Police departments have been totally embarassed by that fact....even cops have driven right by people doing this.  The only reason we arrested some scuzbag doing this was we'd been alerted to the fact that it had been happening in the Capitol complex area, and one of our officers saw a guy walking down the street carrying a catalytic converter.  Our department must have taken 20 reports in about 2 weeks before we actually caught somone.

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I have to stop saying "How stupid can you be?"...people are starting to take it as a challenge!

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RE: Police investigating rash of auto parts thefts, cat... - 7/29/2010 11:26:16 AM   
Aneirin


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From: Tamaris
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Because of the world financial situation, I expect crime to be on the rise, the two situations go hand in hand, it is expected and I am not surprised.

Down here, people are even pulling bits of metal of wrecked boats to scrap, that and grubbing about in the mud for discarded chain to scrap.

Which is annoying to me, as that is where I source my material for my crafts and good job I buried a long length of the stuff away from the water line for future needs.

Some bugger has even claw hammer extracted the copper nails out of a boat deck, but there is a fair few left and am going to get them.


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RE: Police investigating rash of auto parts thefts, cat... - 7/29/2010 3:24:06 PM   
thornhappy


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The converter and airbag thefts were popular all the way back to the late '90s in CA.  Airbags cost $1000 new, IIRC and converters are butt expensive too.

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RE: Police investigating rash of auto parts thefts, cat... - 7/29/2010 5:08:40 PM   
soul2share


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The thing about the catalytic converter is that there are several precious metals inside.  I'm told it's only a few ounces, but they are worth quite a bit;  someone once told me that ounce for ounce, it's worth even more than gold.  Between the homeless and the tweakers, Phoenix got hit hard.  As long as people will pay for the precious metal, they will continue to steal them.

_____________________________

I have to stop saying "How stupid can you be?"...people are starting to take it as a challenge!

*Not a fuck was given.*

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RE: Police investigating rash of auto parts thefts, cat... - 7/29/2010 9:22:49 PM   
thornhappy


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Yep, there's platinum in those suckers.

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RE: Police investigating rash of auto parts thefts, cat... - 7/30/2010 8:28:44 AM   
Termyn8or


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Hunky, I don't mean to be too snarky here, but if you were the town crier the British would have wiped us out before you brushed your teeth in the morning.

The guy I just threw the fuck outta here made alot of money doing that. I wouldn't let him do it anymore, but all it took was a hacksaw and transportation. Just drive up to a used car lot and start cutting for $500 a day. Almost enough to support a crack habit.

For years in this town they have required a scrap licence, which has your picture on it, to take anything in for recycling. People still did it. After while, now when one person shows up which a bunch of catalytic convertors they start asking questions, scrap license or not. You better work for a junkyard or something, seriously.

However my ex buddy does, at least until I decide to cost him his job. He fucked me over at a very bad time and I know where he works, and he has not yet felt the wrath of the Terminator. I am seriously considering having a talk with his boss, who I have already met. He might as well "book state", for the uninitiated that means to leave the state because of the trouble you are in. But that's a different issue.

The family pickup truck was bought sans a convertor, and my ex buddy stole it off the guy we bought it from, that was a few years ago. We had nothing to do with it but it was nice to get the truck for less because of it.

But the last cat I bought new was only $46. Apparently they have already solved the problem by figuring out how to do the job without platinum. But I have seen lists that give the scrap prices for cats, some are hundreds of dollars. The ones from expensive, foreign high performance cars pay the best. From the average shitcan you might get ten bucks. But if you have a trunkload of them, you can do fairly well.

You see the fact that they got cheaper now for a bunch of cars does not automatically remove the platinum fron the older convertors.

And there are a couple of things about those cats that few people know. It is illegal to bypass the cat on a car so equipped. Certain cars and trucks from the early 1970s got an exemption, mainly the ones with the more powerful engines. Also there was, up util more recently no way to test a cat. If your engine ran really right it did not need one. Manufacturing tolerances and such got sloppy and a cat was needed for those engines that would run, but not quite right.

Now they purposely "detune" the engine via the ECM and there is usually a second O2 sensor after the cat to detect whether it is functioning or not. But the fact is, if the engine actually does run perfectly, you don't need it at all. They just can't guarantee that on every production car, so ergo, on goes the cat.

One more thing, as I have said I come from a family of car people. I can smell the exhaust of a car and know if it will pass emissions testing. The only thing trips me up now is NO2, nitrous oxide. And if you can really smell that catalysed exhaust smell out of the tailpipe, your engine is running too rich or misfiring.

But that's the thing, now they all do because that hot and dirty exhaust is what fires the thing up and makes it work.

T

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RE: Police investigating rash of auto parts thefts, cat... - 7/30/2010 8:55:21 AM   
pahunkboy


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One board I belong to- the guys harvest PMs.  It is technical- so I dont hang there alot.

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RE: Police investigating rash of auto parts thefts, cat... - 7/30/2010 9:09:19 AM   
rulemylife


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quote:

ORIGINAL: pahunkboy

Police investigating rash of auto parts thefts in Lower Paxton Township


Where the fuck is Lower Paxton Township and why should I care what goes on there?

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RE: Police investigating rash of auto parts thefts, cat... - 7/30/2010 9:15:00 AM   
rulemylife


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quote:

ORIGINAL: soul2share

Sorry, dude, this is waaaaay old news all over the country.  They've been doing this in AZ for well over 2 years.



They've been doing it way longer than that. 

Catalytic converters have been the target of theft since they were first put on cars.

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RE: Police investigating rash of auto parts thefts, cat... - 7/30/2010 9:58:30 AM   
pogo4pres


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quote:

ORIGINAL: rulemylife

quote:

ORIGINAL: soul2share

Sorry, dude, this is waaaaay old news all over the country.  They've been doing this in AZ for well over 2 years.



They've been doing it way longer than that. 

Catalytic converters have been the target of theft since they were first put on cars.



Indeed I remember when catalytic converters were first put on cars & trucks, and the theft of them became very popular very quickly.  Even in the early 1970's the metals in side were worth a very good amount.

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