Catalytic Converter Thefts

[CleaningWoes]

So last night around 9pm my DD9 says Mum there is a man outside with a baseball bat. I quickly got her away from the window, looked out and suddenly there is an almighty grinding noise and I can see a man lying in the road drilling at a car. I immediately called 999 and the police sent out a chopper though no actual police turned up. One of my female neighbours shouted out the window at them and they threatened her by waving something at her like they were going to smash it through her window. Another neighbour approached them and they chased him with metal bats. All in all 3 cars got done in my street and a 4th one attempted. I feel so sorry for my neighbours whose cars were ruined. These people are nothing but scum. The only upside is that nobody was hurt. Hoping for a more peaceful evening tonight.

There are various plates and clamps you can get but little actually stops them. You can also have your cat marked making it harder to sell.
ultimately if they want it they’ll take it, and if they want to sell it they will.

And if the new ones didn’t work, they wouldn’t be allowed to sell them, and they wouldn’t pass an MOT. Things have moved on since those cars were made, the old cats were heavy and cumbersome in comparison to the new ones.

some of the high performance jap cars have multiple cats for instance, that are incredibly restrictive to the engine.

The police in this country are largely shit, individual police staff most I'm sure work really hard but fuck me stuff like this happens regularly because they're crap. I saw someone interviewed and they said well it's a victimless crime as the person just claims on their insurance, the entitlement is being allowed to flourish under ineffective police forces.

This has been happening a lot recently in the city I work in. One was Stolen in Broad daylight in a busy car park, middle of the day (3PM). Scary

We had ours stolen eighteen months ago

It cost a £1000 to replace

We then bought a cat loc and had the thing marked by Toyota

It took about four weeks to be replaced as the theft was so high

3 cars were done in the same car park

If you go on Ebay people are selling them, surely the police could investigate?

They also took the mesh bit and left the rest of the structure so we took it to the scrap yard- another place police could investigate

Ours was stolen in the middle of the day in a staff car park

Theres no way the springs would be damaged from not be lowered carefully . It's a 4x4

It's not new, mine was done 3 years ago and a friend has had his done twice. They are even doing it in supermarket car parks, they are not scared of being seen, they just threaten people.

Christ, this country is going to the absolute dogs.

You can't claim on the insurance I don't think. Had to buy a new one

The police should take it seriously especially when people are being threatened if they try to stop it

Sounds like the same group is around here in NW London. If anyone tries to stop them they threaten them.

My friend saw a car acting suspiciously and it turned out to be them. When her neighbour (whose catalytic converter was taken) rang the police with the reg plate they had already closed the case

You should be able to claim. I’ve know plenty who have successfully, sadly some have ended up written off as a result of the damage

They aren’t sold on eBay. They are sold to scrap dealers, car specialists or shipped abroad. theres trade websites you can put the make and model in and see what yours is worth.

Sorry should clarify the gangs aren’t selling individual ones on eBay.

Two men were chased out of our local Waitrose car park after the owner of the car came out and found them underneath it. Broad daylight. No fucks given whatsoever.

There is an absolutely jaw dropping video about of two guys doing one under cctv on a driveway. One puts some kind of metal bar into the front door handle to stop the owner leaving the property whilst his mate works.
they know they are on camera and the owner is shouting at them through the window but they couldn’t be less bothered.

it’s been a thing for years though. I decatted a car myself about ten years ago and sold the cat for just under a grand. Profitable little endeavour.

That’s odd , seeing as I spent most of last night trying to catch one group in South London .

You have no idea , how quick they are . We caught one lot with 9 different sets of plates to change on and off their car in one night . So ANPR is often useless . There’s little to no point going to the victims address after more than 5 minutes has passed because it loses us time to actually search for suspects . Better to report online and if there’s any CCTV ring footage , either upload it or the officer assigned can get it later. We are more successful than you know , and we have squads on at night trying to find them , but predicting where they’ll go next in London , where there are arterial roads that get them out of the area inside 3 minutes isn’t easy . We let all surrounding boroughs know , and we have analysts going all over the data , but doing it fast time at 2am is not as simple as it sounds .

theres so many gangs it’s wack a mole. You bat one down and another appears.
I’ve seen in the police compounds, it’s madness the number you’ve caught yet they are still going, if anything they seem to be multiplying.

Sorry if you have insight to the contrary but it's about public perception as well as behind the scenes.

if the police shared their “behind the scenes”investigation tactics and intel with the public, do you think the gangs may also see it and then use this knowledge to evade arrest? Or that it may prejudice any future trials?

the police cannot be completely open about ongoing investigations.

Sadly I agree. Thieving scum roam free everywhere. Our Police locally couldn't be less interested in any of it.
A kid up our road used to park outside various of our houses to smoke weed. His car had no tax or MOT - various of us reported his lack of tax and MOT to Police and DVLA. I had a sneering reply from local PC telling me they "couldn't do anything unless they caught him driving it" - which is such obvious bollocks. I wrote to my MP and an inspector evidently visited them and the car was MOT'd - although it initially failed on dangerous brakes and taxed. I then got a vaguely threatening e-mail from the inspector making it quite clear that he and his offices had much better things to do than dealing with people breaking the law. I have given up dealing with the Police - they are just not interested in anything except trying to avoid doing any kind of enforcement.

Indeed, cats have been stolen off cars for years! About 12 years ago, I walked into my local garage (just around the corner from my house, hence walking) to book an aircon re-gas. I walked in and as soon as the guy at the counter saw me, already knowing what car I had then, he looked at me and said 'oh no, has your cat been stolen too?' I had a 4x4, and there had been a load cut in the area overnight - 4x4s being targeted in particular as they're easier to access. Luckily mine hadn't been when I got home and checked. The theft of them has been going in since the 90s! And as precious metal value rises, so are the thefts.

The police here aren't arsed either, pathetic.

They probably don’t work and are illegal but this is unlikely to be picked up on.