Hi! 1. Has anyone had a cat c stolen with a Miller shield installed? 2. How much do tilt alarms cost

The cat shield brands are all the same, just a chunk of sheet metal to slow a thief down... Some run cooler than others... And it's extremely rare for a thief to make that much noise and time cutting through a shield when a Prius cat without a shield can be had in less than 60 seconds. As for a tilt alarm... You could spend $5 or you could spend $500. Your choice.

 

There are a lot of reasons for owners of older, almost-classic cars to discontinue street parking and start keeping the goodies in the garage.

This is an unusual set of circumstances, but if this car really means this much to you it's probably time to start storing it indoors at least until precious metal prices come back down.

 

The shield is a theft deterrent, like a barking guard dog or a burglar alarm as you stated. Painting the whole converter with bright orange high temperature paint and putting stickers on the windows stating that the catalytic converter is engraved is another.

More likely than not, any thief will find easier pickings elsewhere.

The wildebeest doesn't have to be faster than the lion running after it in the heard; just faster than most of the other wildebeest in the heard.

 

To answer your last question, I just had the MillerCat stainless steel shield installed today, and I could tell no difference on the drive home whatsoever. As a matter of fact, I peeked under the car before pulling into the garage just to make sure it was installed. Time will tell, of course, but I really don't expect any noise or other issues to arise.

 

One of the criminal operations that was discovered, stopped and partially unraveled by law enforcement was in Southern CA. They were filling a cargo container with clipped cats, and the deal was to ship the container overseas West-bound from Long Beach.

If that's the sort of operation working in your area, hardly anyone will see any etchings, and when they do they won't matter since they'll be thousands of miles away with no enforcement likely. Marking/etching is the one component of 'cat defense' that seems valueless to me.

I do think mechanical reinforcement, plates, wire tacked to the exhaust tube wall to interfere with tool placement (and others) are all worth exploring.

I still say parking over puddles works best.

 

You might be right. I don't, however, see any stashes of thous caught in the thief's possession, that have been covered in orange paint.

There are so many easy pickings, why bother with any cat that has been painted or ingraved?

 

Maybe a rapid deployable puddle maker attached to a motion sensor would scare 'em off, especially if you put liquid farts in the water storage container?

 

I had a Millercat Cat Shield installed at Toyota. No rattles or any other issues at all. I also installed a Directed Electronics 507M Tilt Sensor ($37.34) with a Viper Alarm 3105V ($85). So far no issues.

The Tilt Sensor has two settings: a 1˚ change or a 3˚ change. When you park, it sets the current tilt, so the street you park on doesn't need to be level.

Neither will stop a determined thief. The shield will slow them down, and the siren will make working under the car less pleasant. Hopefully they will look for an easier target.

Always parking inside a garage helps only when you're not using the car (you bought it to drive places, right?).

If thieves operate in darkness, I doubt that they will see window stickers, etching, or bright paint. Since they can cut the catalytic converter off and be gone in 60-90 seconds, I don't think they care about those things, even in daylight.

Anything to make them think it will make more work for them so that they look for an easier target is helpful, I think.

 

One more data point for you, I had a millercat shield installed last month in So Cal (certainly a hotspot of catalytic converter theft as above, if not the epicenter), and chatted with the mechanic who said he hadn't had anybody come back to report a post-shield installation theft yet. This was a muffler shop who had enough of a relationship with millercat to be one of their recommended installers (for whatever that's worth), and the guy in front of me was having the same done to his Prius, so I assume the shop has done more than few of them. Just like the poster above, I couldn't hear any difference after the installation.

If you have to leave your car in a vulnerable parking spot nightly, I would think the combo of a tilt alarm and the shield is decent to dissuade your average cat thief. There are just too many easier marks out there for them to stick with a slower, more annoying job with horns blaring. To rephrase Georgina's line to a more PNW-relevant example: You don't have to be faster than the bear, just your fellow campers

 

Hi - I was a victim too got a catty shield and a viper alarm with shock/motion sensor but worried becuz I often have to use the metro and leave the car parked for extended times. They got me at Walmart tho - and was only in the store 15 minutes. So can you plz xplain how the tilt sensor works, or is it like a motion/shock sensor that's supposed to activate if the car is lifted as for a tow, or jacked up?

 

I still like painting the catalytic converter with orange VHT paint and putting "catalytic converter engraved" stickers in the windows.

Even at night, shining a flashlight at the orange painted exhaust next to the shield might lead them to think of going elsewhere.

 

That is just half of it.

While the bear aims for the slowest runner, the cougar (mountain lion, puma, etc.) aims for the fastest runner. You get caught either way.

(Over the weekend, dad's local game warden friend brought over the a cougar head and pelt. It killed some goats the night before.)

 

So sorry to hear that! So they stole yours, even though you had a shield installed? Wow. I would think that the shield might have encouraged them to find an easier target. Especially in a big parking lot with so many cars to choose from.

I wonder whether Walmart might give the police video of the theft. They have video cameras in their parking lots.

Does your alarm indicate afterwards that it had been triggered?

Yes, the Tilt Sensor activates if the car is jacked up. When jacking a car with a jack like thieves use, one side of the car gets jacked up more than the other side, so the car is tilted, which sets off the Tilt Sensor. The one I have is supposed to trigger if there's a 1˚ change.

It might be that your shock sensor is set too low - I would think that should have triggered too. Mine is set such that while sweeping the driveway today, I bumped the front tire with the broom and set off the "warn-away" function. I might have issues on a windy day...

It's possible that your alarm did trigger, and people around just ignored it. Sometimes a thief will set a spare tire on the ground, so people around might think that the car is being jacked up to change a tire. Experienced thieves can do the whole thing in about 60-90 seconds. So if your alarm sounded, they (and everyone else around), may have ignored it. Too many false alarms on cars have caused people to generally ignore them. But the shield should have extended their theft time to somewhat longer.

 

I am picturing someone getting either barbed wire or razor wire and weaving a simple grid back and forth along the underside. Joe Burglar can cut through the strands, yes, but now they're trying to work in a hurry with barbed wire dangling down all around their hands...

 

For anyone who grew up climbing over and through barbwire fences, common barbed wire won't be much of an impediment.

 

Not unless someone is shooting at you like at the Somme on July 1, 1916 near Tiepval from the Schawabem redoubt.

Many a Salford Pal died there.