Should I remove my cats before thiefs do?

This last week I sold cats to a local recycler for $1125 per car. Market price changes daily. These guys know who I am from dealing with battery cores. I still need to produce a copy of a unique Prius title for each converter scraped. This is at the insistence of the police.

I'm now in the process of replacing all the cats on friends and family cars. That's about twenty cats to replace. At this point you might as well get the $1125 before the thieves do. For awhile I had a muffler clamp and a short tube slipped over my OEM cat to make it look like an aftermarket cat. I also installed manifold bolts with non standard heads.

My son's Prius had a Walker cat for about four years and 90K miles without throwing codes. Then some absolute morons stole the aftermarket cat. They scrap for about $5. The theft was captured on camera. It took them more than ten minutes. My daughter's OEM cat was stolen before I got a chance to replace it. Those thieves were pros. They used a handy landscaping brick to block the back tire. Jacked up the front of the car and cut the cat at the exhaust manifold by going over the crossmember and steering rack from the front. Then cut the pipe behind the second cat and ripped out the O2 wires. I'm sure they were gone in a minute. Cat guards will not stop this method.

Herd immunity is the likely end point of Prius cat theft. When 70% of the Prius have aftermarket cats installed the thieves will get tired of jacking up Prius for no reward.

 

I'm using a similar cat to what TMR-JWAP is. MAYASAF is the brand.

 

Thanks so much for this... One of the main reason I'm hesitating on letting local Prius owners know they can leverage hybrid maintenance/repair and vehicle detailing by selling their cat is that in a time of cat thieves you don't want to appear like one or its gonna be a problem.

Any chance you can elaborate on the details of what you did in your town/state to show enough due diligence so if your activities show up on the detectives radar screen you/they are not concerned?

 

I have yet to replace enough cats to attract a lot of attention. In addition to the scrap yards requirement of Prius titles I have also provided copies of the receipts for the aftermarket replacement cats. Minnesota Hybrid Batteries LLC is also registered with the state. That shows I'm in the business of Prius repair.

 

They stole the catalyst in 90 seconds!

 

Lordy they put the car on its side!!!

Times are getting desperate. People are starving. Our Govt's only concern are the rich folks.

 

Wondering if there’s a motion sensor that can be put underneath the car and will put out a deafening sound? It could be remotely turned on and off and perhaps magnetically attached/hidden within the frame?

 

Yes x10 works very well. Cheap an effective.

used it for years. X10.com