I hear those things fetch like $120 average for scrap

 

Dang, sorry to hear that!
I live in SoCal and had my cat stolen from my '91 a few months back. Same situation: went to start it and it sounded like a tractor with no muffler. My thief, however, was kind enough to just unbolt it. The brackets and nuts were sitting right under it.

Filed a police report, and the officer informed me of the growing problem, particularly with 4runners.
High ground clearance + bolt on cat = easy pickin's
The officer said that a perp was arrested that same week with 20+ in his trunk. They fetch about $20 at the scrap yard. There's no way that they are worth more for scrap than they cost to begin with.

His advice was to weld the nuts on once I replaced it.

 

we've had the same issue in maine, and they're working on a state law that requires the recyclers to record all the information from each seller, and also to verify that they have the right to sell the cat. Not sure exactly what the details are on how they're gunna identify weather or not its yours, but we'll see what happens.

Its been a bigger issue here at small used car lots, as they tend not to have much in the way of lights/security. Also we have an issue with people breaking into foreclosed, and summer homes, and stealing the wiring too...metal prices

 

Good thing I have an aftermarket

 

This is crazy! Glad I have no cat.

 

There was a trick we used to do to stop dogs from peeing on our tires that might work well for you. Dog pee is extremely corrosive and will peal paint, powdercoat and chrome. Not to mention it looks terrible w/ dog pee dripping down your tires.


Hook up an electric fence charger to your truck. Drag the ground...on the ground with some steel cable.


Next time a thief grabs ahold of your truck (or a dog starts to pee on it) zappo!

Not sure how well it'll work on a thief, but it works great on dogs. They'll stop peeing on those wheels real quick.


PS: does not work so great unless you have keyless entry (fob) which you can use to arm/disarm the electric fence charger.

PPS: works absolutely best when you can park over a puddle (for the ground cable.)

 

That sucks but Im on cat number 3 for this year. First time it happen I had my full exhaust system replaced with toyota factory parts for 100 bucks.......thank you allstate. Second and third time they didnt even have to cut it just unbolted. Now heres the kicker all three times it was done in different places.

 

If I'd lost 3 cats to theft this guy would live under my parked truck:

 

its because cats are made of titanium, they are worth a lot of money, move its real bad in your area

 

From Omaha... http://youtube.com/watch?v=R61yIgHi1H4

Poor guy...

 

its platnum, not titanium

 

God this ongoing issue makes me furious... They need to treat recyled metals dealers like pawn shops and hold them to the same liability.

Cats aren't the only thing the meth heads are stealing. Anyone in construction knows that copper wire gets yanked all the time!

 

Just a sign of the bad economy, but still that's no excuse IM waiting for my 600 California get the economy rolling refund, new rims n tires are a exhaust or??

 

where do they sell these cats to and how much do they get? I'm just gonna sell mine before they steal it and buy an aftermarket.

 

Yea, My friend who bought my 1990 4runner got his jacked a couple weeks ago. We had to fab up a pipe to bypass the cat. Thess cats are full of PLATNUM!!!! Crack head hack em' off and turn them if for money, then they go score some rocks! I guess its the new thing to do these days.

 

I hate to be the voice of reason, but a tweaker is not going to crawl under your truck in the middle of the night and decide to pass on your cat because it's aftermarket. They're gonna cut it out and find out later it's worthless to them.

 

It should be fairly easy to design/fab/install a perforated steel guard of some sort that protects the cat...my FJ60 L/C had a big solid skid plate that covered it and there were no heat problems...the hot air goes up anyway. That or weld the bolts as has been suggested. Now, if only I knew where to buy black-anodized, scalpel-sharp stainless steel ribbon........................

 

The flanges were really thin on my cat, so I ordered a magnaflow 23884 17.625" direct bolt cat for 82 bux on ebay. Decided to go down to the scrap yard and see what i could get, thinking about 40 bux would be the going rate for that rotted looking pile.....I got $150 for it, so I fixed my exhaust leak and made some money on that one. They're worth some serious money.

 

My girl just gave me a joking idea... take your stock cat off and run on down to your local jeweler! Platinum is platinum, right?

 

I've thought about doing something similar but all it would do is make them take more of your exhaust pipe.