I have 3 or more old oem cats, but am in canada. Never heard of this before. Will ask my cop buddy about it. I will be asking the local recycler what they are worth. Its common here to beat the core out and reinstall them to reduce back pressure but looks good for the yearly safety inspection.
Maybe my junk pile beside the garage is worth something after all!

 

I know when I had my exhaust redone the guy tried very hard to keep mine but I wouldn't let him. Right after I heard about all of this theft and the reason became clear.

Btw reinforcing, armoring, plating or any other means of trying to make it theftproof is a waste of time. There's nothing you can do to prevent this if and when your number comes up. As already mentioned they'll just take more of your exhaust when they take it.

And 3/8" steel stranded cable cuts quite easily with a pair of bolt cutters...

 

So I'm definatly going to go down to the junkyard and cut a bunch of cats off... Take em to the scrap yard and make a quick $500. I honestly dont see whats stopping me from doing that. Simply bring a sawzall, open the cat, crush the metal up real small, and stuff all of it into a junk seat

Is it true that one cat off our trucks is worth $130?

BBL gotta goto the junkyard!