Catalytic converter thieves target Priuses | Post Bulletin Key question is WHAT MODEL YEAR ARE THE VICTIM PRIUS? I thought newer/current have much much less of the metal in the cats so not worth it and other better cats to steal much easier, like from hi-riding 4x4. Anyone feel like calling the Police Depts involved? Last time I "registered" at a newspaper site it cost me 4 hours of anti-virus work to de-hijack my browser.
I have not read any thread on stolen Gen4 or Prime's CAT but I might have missed it. Yeah, it is mostly Gen2, and I thought only in LA and London. Can the police do anything to prevent the CAT theft? Ours certainly will not do anything about it, then again, I don't even keep our cars locked. It's a very safe community.
Biggest bust so far has been up here in Nor Cal at a place in Elk Grove, just outside of Sacramento. There have been reports of cat thefts in other locales, just not as often. I've got the Cap City Muffler shield ready for our Prime. Just need to find a window to visit @The Critic to make the install easy.
For the Prius PRIME, don't thieves have to jack-up the car to steal the CAT? That must be enough deterrent for most situations.
My initial thought is yes, but where there is a will, there's a way. Not being the thief type, I can only think like a thief so far, so a cat shield made sense . If the clearance isn't enough, there's a next line of defense at least.
We have had many warnings here in MN, as well as a video from CA showing thieves jacking up a Prius In broad daylight, getting its cat conv, and leaving in less than a minute. I am hopeful that but don’t know if Toyota was aware of this issue when designing more current models. I do not feel too worried as I park in a private garage.
i thought they were jacking the cars? at least they were in pics from london takes 10 seconds to jack the car, 10 to cut the cat and 10 to lower the car and drive away.
Thiefius Interruptus: ... and Sacramento, and Portland, and Seattle, and ... It doesn't appear to be epidemic here, at least so far. The above picture was captioned as an attempted wheel theft. But really, nobody wants Prius wheels, so I suspect it was an attempted cat theft. Local police don't actually believe there is a specific pattern of Prius cat thefts here, insisting that the cat thieves are going after essentially all vehicle models. At one time, high clearance vehicles were preferred because no jack was necessary.
2nd to last time I had a POS ugly Ford Escort stolen they caught the guy 2 days later. They couldn't even remember how many times they'd arrested him for auto-theft. In CA it "Non-violent" and strictly catch and release, no jail time, even for DOZENS of convictions. My position is "maybe some of the DOZENS of times he was stealing cars he was interrupted by owners and it DID get violent, but none of those cases get connected to him, due to the violence". Also, for many if not most people, having their car stolen can be a life ruining event. Can't get to work so lose job, lose job so lose housing, now homeless and how to get job if homeless, etc. There was reasons they used to hang horse rustlers in the old days, mainly that suddenly depriving someone of their transportation could ruin their lives in all sorts of ways.
