Catalytic Converter Stolen

[moparstuart]

I have some new ones that I got at an auction a few years ago. Is it the honeycomb ones or the ones with beads bringing the most?

beads mostly they have titanuim and or some have platiumn in them  expensive stuff 
  most new- 4 year old air bag are worth decent money .

[PocketThunder]

Dont worry when we are all driving hydro-electric cars in the near future we wont have a cat to steal!   

[moparstuart]

Dont worry when we are all driving hydro-electric cars in the near future we wont have a cat to steal!   

expensive water catcher maybe ?

[The70RT]

If we do change over to electric then they will steal the car and yank the electric motor(s). If you think copper products are high now......

[BigBlackDodge]

 


I can't believe nobody used that smiley in this topic!



BBD

[sick dawg]

Around little Mexico , out in the burbs and rural areas they are climbing the power poles and cutting down the neutral wire between spans for the copper.  I 'm  just waiting to run a theft for the power co. one night and find a fried tweaker out there. In the mean time it causes all kinds of electrical problems for the bill paying citizens.  little Mexico ( Prince Georges County MD )

[chgr500]

Friend at work lost his cat over this last weekend... ..Vancouver Canada

[RoscoePColtrain]

This issue was on the news here in Toronto last night.  Some guy hit a Kia dealership and made off with 5 cats in 15 minutes, he just cut them off.  They said that there is about $50.00 worth of platinum in each cat.

[The70RT]

This issue was on the news here in Toronto last night.  Some guy hit a Kia dealership and made off with 5 cats in 15 minutes, he just cut them off.  They said that there is about $50.00 worth of platinum in each cat.

Some used cats go for over 100 bucks on ebay and there is over 2000 last time I checked! Here is an example. And I thought gold was on the rise.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Scrap-Catalytic-Converter-Platinum-exotic-foreign-MB2_W0QQitemZ350012118761QQihZ022QQcategoryZ29402QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[moparstuart]

This issue was on the news here in Toronto last night.  Some guy hit a Kia dealership and made off with 5 cats in 15 minutes, he just cut them off.  They said that there is about $50.00 worth of platinum in each cat.

Some used cats go for over 100 bucks on ebay and there is over 2000 last time I checked! Here is an example. And I thought gold was on the rise.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Scrap-Catalytic-Converter-Platinum-exotic-foreign-MB2_W0QQitemZ350012118761QQihZ022QQcategoryZ29402QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

they are salvage yard gold , and i guess 5 finger saws all discount gold also !!!!!!!!

[BrianShaughnessy]

I remember late 70's/ early '80's we'd take cats off and put on a "test pipe" and throw the dumb thing in a dumpster to get rid of the evidence.

[moparstuart]

I remember late 70's/ early '80's we'd take cats off and put on a "test pipe" and throw the dumb thing in a dumpster to get rid of the evidence.

they make it hard to do that today with oxygen sensors

[JimShine]

A big problem around this area is people stealing parts from central air conditioning units for scrap. The scrappers are making tons of money from these thefts. They give the crooks pennies on the dollar for this stuff and look the other way.

Here was a big theft that happened in Portland Maine.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=154361&ac=PHnws

Theft of copper wiring leaves path in the dark
The culprits, who took 21,000 feet of wire from the East End, left little evidence of their crime.

By DAVID HENCH Staff Writer

December 11, 2007


The theft of more than 10 tons of copper wire from lights along Portland's East End walkway could leave the ocean-side path unlighted for months as city workers try to repair damage worth more than $60,000.
"Whoever did it was quite professional," said Bob Leeman, Portland's director of public buildings. "They went through the process of putting the cover plates back on the light poles. They didn't leave any evidence they were there, except the wire was missing."

Last week's discovery was the latest in a surge of thefts targeting copper, which is fetching about $2 per pound from scrap dealers. The price of the industrial metal has jumped 400 percent in the past five years.

Houses slated for demolition, construction sites and even high- voltage electrical substations have been burglarized. Other metal items also have been stolen, including bronze flagpoles and exhaust systems' catalytic converters, which contain tiny amounts of platinum.

Last month, thieves broke into the construction site for the new Mercy Hospital in Portland and bypassed expensive power tools in favor of copper pipe. The thieves cut the pipe into 4-foot lengths to make it easier to load, said police Lt. Tony Ward.

The three-strand wire in the lights along the East End walkway is as big around as a finger and weighs about a pound per foot. The distance between lights can be almost 100 feet, and about 40 light poles were affected.

The thieves apparently opened junction boxes on the lights, snipped the wires and pulled them out.

The East End path gets heavy foot traffic, most of it during the day. Leeman said he would not be surprised if someone saw the thieves and thought they were just workers.

"They either had some special equipment, or some pretty rugged guys. I would guess they had the right equipment," he said, which would have included gear for spooling the wire. "People who pull electrical wire for a living would have the right equipment."

The theft was discovered by city workers who showed up Friday morning to work on lights to the east of Cutter Street. The thieves had taken about 2,100 feet of wire there and stopped short of an area that might have been covered by security cameras.

When the city started investigating, workers found that wire was missing from poles running west from Cutter Street to Tukey's Bridge, beneath the bridge and over to Back Cove. City officials estimate that a total of 21,000 feet of wire was stolen, Leeman said.

The thefts had gone unnoticed because lights were being worked on and power to at least a stretch of them had been shut down, said Leeman.

Some of the areas closer to Back Cove did have power. Leeman cannot say why the theft, or at least the lack of lighting, was not reported earlier.

Workers can't pinpoint the time of the theft, but the wires are tarnished where they were cut, suggesting that some time has passed, he said.

Fixing the lights might take more than money. The city will have to thread a new line through an underground conduit, using a Styrofoam ball with string attached, which is drawn through by a vacuum. If ice has infiltrated the conduit, that method won't work.

"We may be without lights until next spring," Leeman said.

Catching the thieves could be a challenge. Legitimate scrap copper can be hard to differentiate from stolen copper. Thieves may try to sell it out of state or sell it in small batches so they won't arouse suspicion, Ward said.

With 21,000 feet of copper wire, he said, "I would think you would raise some suspicions."

[The70RT]

Last summer thieves were steeling copper wire that runs the huge water sprinklers you see farmers have in their fields. They now are coming up with a cell phone notification if the circuit is interupted the owner gets an email and then he can go to the field and shoot the bastards.

[moparstuart]

Last summer thieves were steeling copper wire that runs the huge water sprinklers you see farmers have in their fields. They now are coming up with a cell phone notification if the circuit is interupted the owner gets an email and then he can go to the field and shoot the bastards.

GREAT PLAN

[Charger_Fan]

Last summer thieves were steeling copper wire that runs the huge water sprinklers you see farmers have in their fields. They now are coming up with a cell phone notification if the circuit is interupted the owner gets an email and then he can go to the field and shoot the bastards.

GREAT PLAN

Now they just automatic need laser guided gatling guns, so the farmer doesn't even need to leave the barn.

[Brock Samson]

and in Copper Theft news:
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/NewsStory.aspx?story=49125
Two New Hampshire men were buried this week after they were electrocuted while taking copper wire from an unoccupied power plant in Tyngsboro, Mass.
The bodies were found lying alongside bolt cutters and coils of copper wire,
Their deaths followed the electrocution fatalities in Arkansas of two people attempting to strip copper wire from utility poles. The problem has gotten so out of hand that the Arkansas government has passed three bills that crack down on the theft of scrap metal.
The price of copper has rocketed in recent months, driven primarily by demand from China. Copper prices increased 14 percent in March to US$3.16 a pound, the highest level since early December.
China has acknowledged the human dangers of illegal copper acquisition. Chungcheng Fan, vice director at the China Institute of Communications told a crowd of communications experts in March that China would most likely use the Ethernet version of passive optical network technology, or EPON, in rural areas because "the problem of stealing copper wire is too great to further expand copper-based access."

    and
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6144464.stm
  Hundreds of trains in Rome and Turin have been delayed for at least 30 minutes as signalling equipment and safety devices have become disabled.
Italy's railway operator says that some 250,000 commuters have been affected. The price of copper has tripled in the past three years, making it an attractive commodity for thieves.
Usually operating at night, they have been tearing up miles of copper wire running along rail tracks.
The wire is used to carry information for automatic signalling and safety equipment.
China shipment:Police say they have arrested 22 people in the past month alone on charges of stealing copper wire.
Many of the accused have been identified as Romanian immigrants.
Near Turin, police discovered a clandestine factory allegedly used for recycling the metal ready for export.
The copper is being sold mainly to China.
In Naples, police recently seized dozens of sea containers filled with stolen copper coils parked in the port area ready for shipment to China.
The copper thieves have also been stealing copper cables belonging to the Italian electricity company Enel and stored at building sites.
  and in Canada:
http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=29c1c95e-2704-47f9-9487-2b7b08de4a2b

      We had a local ring busted here today in Richmond Calif. after a one year investigation, the news isn't on line yet..

[Charger_Fan]

We had a local ring busted here today in Richmond Calif. after a one year investigation, the news isn't on line yet..

Heard about that on the radio this morning.