Cat stolen: repair or sell?

The catalytic converters were stolen yesterday morning on my 04 Prius and I'm trying to decide how to respond. I live in CA so the cheapest new OEM/CARB replacement I could find is ~$1800 (with shipping), plus the O2 sensor which is around $200.

Financially I am in a good spot right now, so I can afford fix the car, but I also have ~$8k I could put down on a new or used car. In the past year I've spent $2600 on repairs (replaced hybrid battery, fluids, filters, pumps, etc.) for the Prius so even though the car is in aesthetically mediocre shape, it's mechanically sound. I am torn because I don't want this sort of thing to happen again. I know there are anti-theft aftermarket solutions out there but it seems like a thief would need just another 2 or 3 minutes to hack those off.

I'm considering buying a 2014 civic or mazda3 to avoid having to pay for another cat or hybrid battery (the latter I've replaced twice now), but I don't know if I'm looking at this situation with a grass-is-greener perspective: I don't know much about owning a direct-injected car, much less these models specifically. Plus I would have to figure out what to do with the Prius, as I don't know how to sell it without first fixing/smogging it. I'm really disheartened and don't feel capable of making a sound financial decision right now and was hoping some of you could help.