I have read alot about theft of catalyic converters. What is the easiest way to steal one of these?

You could probably find one in a car

From the news that I've been hearing on the radio and on T.V., thieves are using battery powered Zaw saws.

-Selah

Seeing as I am on the buying end of converters at work, I will tell you some hints.

The weapon of choice is a battery powered sawz-all. With a good metal blade, you can be through the pipe in under 5 minutes.

The best vehicles to hit at the moment will be Toyota 4 Runners. The catalytic from them brings close to $200. Also good are BMW and Mercedes. Anything foreign will normally net you more $$ than most domestics. Some GM converters will also bring a fair amount of money. Stay away from Ford, they have the worst converters for the money. If the converter looks cheap, and has flimsy shielding on it, that converter may be an aftermarket unit, which will only net you around $10. Stay away from those.

Another good tip is to cut an extra section of pipe off of the converter before you sell it. Just an inch will do. It keeps the cops from being able to match it back up to the vehicle you stole it from, should questions arise later.

The best hint is, don't get caught in the act. That is pretty much the only way you can get prosecuted at the moment, since there is no efficient way to trace the converter back to the vehicle, other than physically matching up the cut marks.

thanks for the help. sounds easy to steal to me. I bet iI can make 500 a night.

The only bitch about it is that it is loud as all hell. It actually works better to steal them in daylight, because there is more noise going on around you normally. A sawz-all going through converter pipe can be heard over 100ft away with no problem.

Shit, some people use a corded sawz-all and run an extension cord to an outdoor socket on someones house to cut the pipes. People are stupid.

how hard is it to unscrew the bolts on these converters?

They are welded in, there are no bolts....unless it is some kind of cheap shit resonator.
Also, a portable torch would cut through it just as fast with no noise.


The Agency.

yea but thats kinda dangerous i mean a torch right beside a gas tank

It wouldn't be as dangerous as you would think, given that you have used a torch before;the cat is not to close to use one in most cars. If you are worried about noise and the potential risk of a torch, just use a hacksaw. It would take a bit longer but would be better in the noise/safety area.


The Agency.

It's called a sawzall, but yeah that should work. Bring extra batteries.

It can be hard to tell if they have dogs or not, if they release them only at night.
But meat will solve your issues with that.
Good luck man, I'll fill you guys in after tonight, I'm probably going to go check some places out.

Sorry to interrupt, but the dogs around my neighborhood won't take food from anyone except their owner. Better not risk it. Just to be sure bring pepper-spray or a hammer to kill them if they don't take food...

EDIT:
Better yet, USE THE SAW!!

I lol'd at the thought of some pitbull / rottie charging at me full speed and I just knock its shit loose with a 3 lb sledge.

I like dogs too and I still laughed.

Depends on the dog. Some "attack dogs" will run after a chucked hot dog, and some won't be quite so easy to deal with. From personal experience, a lot of dogs left on lots like that are large and intimidating, but are generally all bark and no bite. Hell, I've gotten a couple to chill down just by petting them until they were comfortable with me.

Right so I found a good place w/ out any dogs or cameras or anything, its by a semi busy road (note: route 1) but only one or two cars drive by every few minutes or so, and you can't see to back where I am unless you were looking for someone in the little lot.

I went out there tonight at around 11pm, and brought my little cordless reciprocating saw with me, I got under a Jeep and started cutting, 30 seconds later I'm like "WTF?" and the saw has only made a tiny slit in the metal.

I'm blaming the blade for now, I'm going to test out the saw tomorrow to see if it really does suck or not. I also need to bring a jack so that I can jack up certain vehicles.

Hell, they leave the cars unlocked there, I should just steal them.

same exact thing happened to me on one of my attempts

Maybe the saw, but remember that you have to reply a shitload of pressure on it, and give it a couple of minutes. If you did, then yeah, the saw might be weak or damaged.

Last night, I used a manual hacksaw and cut through on an average of three to five minutes.

29 convertors baby, in two hours. I tried to pick and choose, and I've got some of the higher-ups, I believe.
I'll call up some guys, sell a few of these today, and see how much this is overall worth.

Damn son, where'd you get all them?

I think I may not have been putting enough pressure on it. The manual hacksaws are the ones shaped like a U with the blade that connects the two ends right?

Yep, this one looks a lot like mine:
http://news.thomasnet.com/images/large/024/24713.jpg


Used car dealership that's off of the main highway a little bit. One fence, no dogs, moderately useless cameras = easy job.


I've sold six today, to a guy who didn't seem very interested in where I got them, even when I told him I might be able to get more. He just said to bring 'em in.

Total so far: $560

Working out pretty nice.

So how did you get them? Bring a jack and jack up the cars and just go underneath the pickup trucks?

I forgot the mention this earlier but the adrenaline rush was great when I got out of my car and started going through the little lot they have.