Pop quiz - what do U.S. cities Caledonia, WI, Wellesley, MA, Wichita, KS and Mineola, NY all have in common? Their residents have unfortunately been victims of catalytic converter thefts in the last 30 days. Automobile catalytic converter theft, which became popular in the U.S. in the mid-2000s as the global price of precious metals rose to unprecedented levels, is still occurring at alarmingly high rates. In fact, according to the FBI's 2012 Uniform Crime Report, there were over 406,000 reported motor vehicle accessory thefts in the U.S., and an increasing percentage of those thefts are of catalytic converters.

The federal government has failed to launch any meaningful legislation to combat catalytic converter theft and only a handful of states have made it harder for thieves to redeem stolen converters or have increased the penalty for getting caught trying to sell a stolen converter. The automobile manufacturers have been deathly silent on the topic, as replacing the stolen converters is big business for their accessory and parts departments. Given this backdrop, how can consumers and businesses protect the vehicles they rely on everyday from converter thieves?

If you ask a police officer how to combat converter theft he or she will tell you to park your car in a garage or well lit area and to call the police if you see anyone suspicious by your vehicle. This advice is reactive and in some cases, impossible, because not everyone has control of where they park their car throughout the day. The odds of keeping your converter safe will increase dramatically if you use a proactive approach to protecting your converter, and the best way to do so is with a converter lock. Don’t just take it from me, the U.S. Department of Justice endorses converter locks too in their ‘Problem Oriented Guide for Police No. 58 - Theft of Scrap Metal’, available at www.cops.usdoj.gov.

There have been a handful of converter locks in the U.S. market in the last few years, not all of them have worked well and many have folded. Many mechanics have devised their own unique, one-off solutions that work for their customers. But since 2009 there has been only one brand of converter lock that has been sold nationally and that has a 100% success rate at preventing converter theft, that brand is The Catlock. The Catlock is the only converter lock that was created by a converter theft victim, for converter theft victims. It’s 3 different models (1.0, 2.0 & 3.0) offer consumers and businesses a variety of price points and levels of protection to fit their needs. The Catlock has helped protect thousands of converters over the years, so why not let it protect yours? Look for The Catlock in national auto part and brake and muffler shops mid-2014 and in the meantime for more information or to place your order, visit www.cat-lock.com today.

Check it out here

 

Ridiculous waste of money.
With a cordless sawzall and some cheap boltcutters, your cat is still gone in a couple minutes.

 

Wow that's dumb...like mill said. The only tool the thief has to add to his arsenal is a pair of bolt cutters. Adds maybe ten seconds to cutting the cat out of our trucks. Then, once at their safe location, they can jimmy the "cat lock" off at their convienence...

 

lol...
So once the cat-lock is securely fastened, the thief now has 4+ lbs of scrap steel to recycle along with your cat and with whatever section of exhaust pipe they cut away. $20 spent at harbor freight can defeat that thing without making any loud noise.

 

Well, I'm mildly impressed, didn't know they made something like this. In most cases of theft I've known the cats were cut off with pipe cutters, BTW, though at least one used a sawzall.

The idea is that most thieves aren't going to be carrying bolt cutters with them to steal cats because they're not usually necessary and it's another tool to carry, and more time and effort, so unless these really catch on they'll probably just hit the car next to you without a lock. The whole reason for cutting vs unbolting is speed, and this cuts into that. Not a bad option for those not inclined to build a custom cage, etc.

For those more inclined, steel rod welded to your exhaust pipe is an easy to apply deterrent against pipe cutters. There's no magic bullet, with enough time anything you put underneath can be dismantled.

 

I thought I've seen it all