This is about the moment that a group of beefy locals need to come out and charge them like a pack of Maori warriors.
How irritating that the writer is implying that it's London cockneys doing this crime and making light of the crime. There is a lot more evidence ((including my own) that the one thing they are probably not is old school Londoners Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
My company (LV) did the job without fuss . I had previously chosen to have £300 excess so that was painful but they did say that as the claim wasnt my fault and I have paid for no claims protection my premium will not go up. No doubt it will still go up for other yet to be disclosed reasons. Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
My insurance didn't go up either. I changed to a much newer car and my premium actually dropped. This was only about a month or so after my claim on behalf of 'The Sitting Duck' as well. I am guessing the fact I had no claims protection may have helped. Though I am just guessing. I did not question them in case they changed their mind!
Whaaaa? I had protected no claims bonus too! Unfortunately, I was told I get it in the neck, because they can’t locate the low life scum responsible for the dastardly theft.... iPhone 6s +
I've been told that mine will go up as well, even the insurance company I'm with for the Subaru have said that policy will go up as well, as it's due to me making a claim, it's not against the car (or something like that), it goes against me as a person, not against the car.
Not limited to the UK: Toyota Prius Could Be New Favorite Target for Catalytic Converter Thieves - NBC 7 San Diego
Any excuse to ‘take’ the unfortunate customer brazenly over a rusted barrel. Positively immoral iPhone 6s +
What's the most enjoyable new car to own? Here's a clue: it's a hybrid https://mol.im/a/6950207 Not related to the theft but..
Work mates neighbor who lives near croydon says her prius has had the Cat stolen 3 times in last few months. No idea if she has been replacing it with the OEM cat or a cheap one.
it would be good to find out if possible what one she had it replaced with, although the thiefs don't seem to care less what it is, they just go and take it regardless.
Preferably with full Ta Moko! I can't believe every time I log into Priuschat now I see these thefts as the most recently updated thread. Something needs to be done.
Do we have any idea how many 'gangs' are doing this? If there are only a few large gangs, it might be time for some detective work. (I know the police should do such work, but they are too busy dealing with more serious crimes). It would be tempting to get a group of people together, near to one of the 'hot spots' for cat theft, get hold of a cheap Prius Gen 2 from ebay with dead battery etc. Clean it up, polish it, make it look well cared for. Get an iPhone 4 with a pay-as-you-go SIM, and make a special cat which has the iPhone 4 in it (iCloud locked of course). Place a few of these bait cars around (pushed into place!). Use the 'find my friends' feature which triggers an auto alert when the location changes (geofencing etc). Given that the thieves cut off the cat, and dont do the actual processing, it should be possible to track the location of the CAT with GPS. The only real issue is GPS signal but, these days, it seems to work almost anywhere, and the cat does have two holes at each end, so there is a fair chance of getting a location. It might be possible to track it to the home of the thief, but then track it to the 'central warehouse', which could then be raided by people who could make arrests (or citizen's arrests) of the criminals...
These thefts only continue as the local Police Forces don’t seem to give a “Castlemaine XXXX” about either the thefts or the perpetrators; reduced budgets be damned. 10 months is more than enough time to formulate the most rudimentary plan and round up these bastards and have the charges of Grand Theft CAT + Eco terrorism stick! That totally useless prancing London Mayor should have introduced a new LAW at the beginning of the year marking the thefts of Catalytic Converters within Greater London as terrorism against the London’s attempts to reduce emissions; ergo, a crime against the state punishable by 10 years in the clink with no parole. Add chain gang hard labour to their sentence for good effect. I cannot believe how law enforcement have glibly turned a blind eye to these thefts.....is someone at the top of the ladder on the fracking TAKE..?!!! iPhone 6s +
Also, I bet they would be pressing charges right away if you were to weld a pipe in place of the stolen cat. This should be the default option until they get their act together! It would also help save the planet slightly (less wastage of cats, and, improved fuel economy, at the expensive of small amounts of CO2 and NO). So far this isn't a problem in NZ, but if mine gets stolen, I had better not be nearby (if I was, I would get into the car, lock the doors, and start the engine. I wouldn't harm them, but they would have to face a running engine making the cat a little warm). I would of course defend myself if they then tried to get to me inside the car. That said, they can have my cat if they want, because it throws a check engine light after five minutes, and has done so for quite some time. My car doesn't put out visible smoke, and hence it passes the emissions test
I wouldn’t be surprised if our completely useless and pathologically inept Mayor decides to side with these CAT thieves by automatically declaring any Prius that doesn’t have an original OEM CAT installed (after being stolen), not eligible for free access to the recently introduced ULEZ zone from around London’s A406 and inwards to the centre of the city. It’s the sort of nonsense I’ve come to expect from these totally disconnected from reality types, and a decision like that wouldn’t shock me in the slightest. They blatantly refuse to protect the so called little insignificant citizens from this awful crime blitz (using the dumb explanation “it’s a victimless crime”), but are falling over each to create new laws designed specifically to SCREW those same citizens AFTER they’ve already been screwed by law enforcement ineptitude.... I guess the increased insurance premiums for each f*cked over Prius owner, plus V.A.T. from all those repairs will keep The Exchequer rubbing his clammy hands with glee at the extra Insurance Premium Taxes from the raised insurance premiums. They’ve already declared several scores of thousands of perfectly serviceable cars with acceptable emissions as too polluting to run in the new ULEZ zone as of April 2021. Funny thing is, it won’t really make the zone any cleaner. I mean, are they gonna erect invisible force fields to stop the allegedly polluted air from drifting across the A406 ring road into the new ULEZ zone?!! That sucks for scores of thousands of motorists who rely on their vehicles daily to go about their legitimate business to pay their bills and myriad taxes. The bill for driving a non compliant vehicle into the zone is a great whopping £12.50 per day or whereabouts. Unsustainable by any but the super stinking rich with money to literally burn. Not everyone can afford a brand new Tesla Model X EV Triple facepalm, because the FAIL is........ iPad ? Pro
Spot on Data. That ULEZ fiasco is 100% a money making scheme. To clean up London's air we are told - LMAO, of course not. Who do you think you are kidding Mr Khan?? Same as the road tax. We were all encouraged to buy cleaner low emission cars. So we did. As such many motorists (especially Hybrid owners) were paying lower road tax or none at all. Suddenly Mr Exchequer realised the motorist was not earning the treasury enough dosh (thanks to manufacturers producing low emission cars) So he scrapped the whole thing in one go, and slapped a massive increase on everything not 100% electric. All of a sudden (new) hybrids have to pay a LOT more to run around. The cars are cleaner than ever, yet the road tax doesn't reflect this. ££££ talks.