Frankly these Toyota offroad sites should unite and pressure our state and national Law Enforcement on this. I mean we have enough threads, we can easily Tally how much this has cost (Time included) It is beyond ridiculous nothing is being done to curb the sticky fingers of the meth heads, and even worse... the unscrupulous scrap yards who buy without Pawn Shop rules.... Someone needs to be help accountable and it really isn't our Job... but if we don't start something... no one will!

 

I see ads in my newspaper for people who buy these. I would think that law enforcement must read the paper too so I don't see how they don't stake out these places and then follow the people who bring the cats in. One thief was shot and killed a couple of months ago - an undercover cop staking out a parking lot at a mall confronted him and he tried to jump in his van and run the cop over. You'd think this would have an effect on the criminals but the thefts are now rising more and more.

 

In the words of my well respected Law Enforcement friend. We got bigger fish to fry. Untill the public rallies and makes a noise the Police really won't make it a priority.....

Sad but True... and we as Toyota 4x4 owners are one of the highly targeted groups...

 

you may have an aftermarket, but do they know that!
I haven't heard of many thefts in the Chicago area, or at least it hasn't made the news yet.

 

yeah i used to work at a salvage yard and one night security caught a guy with a pile of 30 someodd cats in a pile! bag was just crawling around with a sawsall stealing em all! go get a job and leave peoples trucks alone

 

I think you got it a bit wrong. Instead of calling the police, why don't you drive them to the station while they are glued to the underside of the truck? Talk about roadrash!

 

close to home and targeting 4runners

http://www.venturacountystar.com/new...cles-reported/

 

around here in order to scrap copper wire and other things of that nature that are commonly stolen and scrapped the scrap yards will take your drivers licence number and if you have a large quantity of it, they will even go as far as to take pictures of you/your truck and the scrap. and if you frequently scrap things that are typically stolen for scrap it raises an red flag and the cops will come check you out. i know this because i scrap anything i can get my hands on legally, mostly i scrap old cars that people want taken away though. maby they need to adopt these practices for cats as well. there is a place here that advertises 50 dollars per used unwanted cats, and another place that is buying old batterys for $10 each. im just waiting to start hearing storys about cats and batterys being stolen around here. i think someone tried to steel my exhaust as one morning i came out and the pipe was unbolted from the manifold.

 

When I took my old 3.0 cat in to scrap it here the lady looked at it and said "oh thats one of the good ones" and she handed it to a another guy and he ran off with it. I was like... wait a minute how much is it worth? She said $140 and gave me a slip of paper and said go to the window to get paid. I get up there and the guy hands me another slip to sign (saying I didn't steal it). After that he hands me $140 in cash. No ID, no questions, no info taken, I hurried away because there was a bunch of scarey looking guys scaping stuff and they saw my wad of cash. It was quite a trip, there were piles of different kinds of scrap metal all over the place and they were very busy. As I was driving away a homeless bum with a grocery cart of scrap was coming down the road.

 

It is happening up here in NorCal as well. I got mine jacked last week so I have been telling everyone that drives a 4Runner or Toyota Truck to keep their car garaged or get an catclamp and an alarm. I am getting my alarm installed ASAP and I am ordering my catclamp. It is pricey but I guess that's the price I will have to pay to protect my baby.

 

well i think my story gets the biggest slice of the f'd up cake... i live right down the street from one of LAPD's police academy's.... a cop usually drives by about every 3-4 mins... i left my truck parked on the street one night... and the next morning... bam GONE!!!!! i woke up my whole neighborhood and a cop stopped to question me... ' excuse me sir why is your truck ridiculously loud?'' my under the breathe reply was... " cause you mofo's didnt do your job"... and my regular tone reply was..." cause i got my cat convert. stolen.." he's reply... "well it's been happening a lot around here.. you should be more careful... have a nice day... " and drives off... 100 bucks later and a nervous drive to a muffler shop... i got my new one.... a cheap magnablow replacement... and i do believe that the thieves are targeting oem cats because... they tried my car again... ( yes i know you f&*ing stupid for parking in the street again you moron.... hey i live in apts. had no parking but the streets....) they took off one bolt and then must of realized it was a aftermarket replacement and left it alone.... so atleast the thieves will leave you be when you got either cheap aftermarket aka magnablow or garage that bitch!

 

is the catclamp even effective or can they just cut higher on the exhaust and take the whole thing? I don't understand how they could prevent that.
budbuilt bellypan might hide the cat?

are magnaflow aftermarkets being stolen too? is there a way to mark 'aftermarket worthless' in a way better than with a sharpie? (good idea tho!!)

 

Not worth it. If ya use the cat clamp (I have since decided) with an OEM cat they'll cut above and below it and you'll pay EVEN more to replace. Honestly (IMHO) the best you can do is spray pain the after market cat bright orange and leave a note on it (in high temp writing) "ATTENTION. AFTERMARKET CAT!"

I feel so bad for you Cali and East coast guys. No problems here in mostly rural Colorado but our time will come!

 

I was seriously thinking about the same thing. From what the website, it is NOT just the cage around the cat, there is supposedly aircraft grade braided stainless steel cables that run pretty close to the muffler. I know all about cutting the stock piping and YES it does cost way more if they cut further away from the cat and close to the muffler. If it was a professional that stole my cat, at least the repair bill would have been cheaper. But, it had to have been a rookie because the thief clamp down on the pipe until it pinched and we tugged on it back and forth until the cat came off. I think the cat clamp could still be a wise investment because the thief hopefully will move onto an easier target.

 

Well that right there is probably why it might be worth it, but I don't live where you guys do so you all will have to let me know if it works. Funny here I live in safe-place colorado and I am so pissed about cat thefts I watch these threads closely....

Thanks for the input all! And PLEASE report back if you have done something and your CAT has NOT been touched!

 

Definitely will Molly. Talk about anger, I was so furious when I started my Runner that morning, I almost punched out my passenger window. That would have been really dumb. It sucks here because everyone, even the local authorities are saying that it is going around BUT nobody is doing anything about it.

 

Just wondering, does insurance cover it. I guess it would be claimed as theft.

 

Yea, my insurance covered it. Someone on here used to work for an insurance company and he told me that it was under comprehensive not collision.