Growing Number of Thieves Target Toyota Truck Catalytic Converters

[lifetrddeath]

Article from 3 April 2008

PLEASE BE ADVISED!!!!  This is happening big time in Hampton Roads, VA at the moment, as well as Bay Area, CA.

"Drivers of Toyota pickup trucks are the latest victims of a growing trend of thieves targeting not the entire vehicle but just the catalytic converter that hangs within easy reach of a criminal.

'It takes about two minutes, especially on Toyotas,' Tyler Shaw told KRON 4's Rob Fladeboe.  Shaw is learning more than he wants to about the phenomenon after discovering a pipe hanging from his Toyota pick-up with the catalytic converter gone.

The catalytic converter on your vehicle contains platinum.  Thieves can collect as much as $60 per converter from scrap yards.

While San Jose Police say they've received eight reports in two weeks of converter thefts, there's evidence the problem is even larger than that.

'We see more than that in a week,' Bob Graves with Kwik-Way Muffler Shop told Rob.  He says he repairs as many as 15 stolen converters every single week.

How will you know if your converter was stolen?  Experts say you'll hear the problem since the device is located right next to the muffler.'

http://www.kron.com/Global/story.asp?S=8116748

[srozell]

Aye, my 90 4Runner got hit in a college parking lot. Thanks to the parts that were damaged I got a completely new exhaust system compliments of my insurance company.

Oh.. so as we don't start any needless rumors, I wasn't at the college to learn anything. I already know it all. My wife teaches math.

The way I see it, this is a great excuse to get some under-body armor for your truck, either that or a cheap sawzall. I look forward to catching someone under my truck doing this.

[Melsik]

Dude, I wonder how many cats it takes to make a platinum chain. I can see the new hip hop videos now showing a duffle bag boy pulling a cat off of a taco..what a disgrace that would be