Stolen catalytic converter in london uk

First post here; wish it was under better circumstances!

Lovely day today in today so drove over to Primrose Hill, London for a picnic with my partner and newborn son. Had a great day out but when I returned to the car a few hours later and started the engine and experienced a sound that I had never heard in my life before! To cut a long story short and after reading this thread here I realised that the catalytic converter had been stolen; this was confirmed to me by the AA patrol man who came out to look at the vehicle. I'd never even heard of all this until today!

A little unsure as to my next steps so I was wondering whether anyone here can offer some advice.

I was thinking of reporting this to the Met Police first and foremost as a crime; believe I can do this online. Would i need get a crime number from them before I report this to my Insurance company? Vehicle is going to get towed to a Toyota dealer tomorrow morning where I will ask for a quote to get this replaced. Should I wait to see what my Insurance company say first before undertaking this?

 

Hello,

Bought a really nice condition, <50k mile 2008 T sprit Prius at the beginning of January, had the cat stolen last week. Really dismayed, to put it mildly. Can't have put more than 200 miles on it.

My battery's also gone flat. In fact initially I thought that was all that was wrong with it, but when I swapped it for a spare, I started the car and realised something was terribly wrong. Subsequently that replacement battery has gone flat too. Is that likely to have been caused by the cat theft? I may have left a cabin light on, but surely they're automatically turned off when you lock the car?

Calling the insurance company tomorrow. Assuming I get it repaired (either by the insurance or privately), is there anything I can do to prevent another theft? Reading the whole thread here, it seems like the only options are the catstrap from the US (which doesn't sound that impervious), or a bespoke solution, if you have the means to do it yourself or know someone who can...

Also if I'm going to get this done privately I'll need a decent garage in West London (W3) - any recommendations?

Thanks

Luke

 

You guys ever heard of guns? Apparently the British army used them to conquer great parts of the world some time ago.

 

Sorry to hear about your 2nd Gen Prius being ripped off by this still at large organised crime syndicate.

Toyota will charge you an arm and a leg to install an OEM CAT at almost £2,000 - and once that happens, these criminals WILL target you again with malice aforethought.

Please contact the Rye Street Group (Google them) for repairs to your car - if you decide NOT to do it via insurance.

They DID sort my Prius out (via Tesco Insurance) and did a flawless brilliant job. They installed a Klarius CAT which works perfectly - certainly as well as the OEM CAT.

Rye Street Group are adept at fixing Prius cars damaged in this manner - I can certainly vouch for them. They towed my car, sorted it and towed it back - worth considering.

Report this crime to the police - even if they’re gonna shrug ‍ give you a crime number and close the case immediately.

Once again, sorry about your Prius. This information is also relevant to Luke.

Good luck!


iPhone 6s +

 

Still waiting for mine to be taken to the repair shop. Supposed to be coming today. I have missed four days of work so far.

I have heard back from the police who have told me that they are closing my case due to lack of evidence. Should I so wish, and armed with my crime number, they want me to contact the owner of the CCTV camera that was above my car at the time and to relay the name and phone number of a person at said CCTV company to whom they can contact with a view to looking at the CCTV evidence. Apparently they do not have the manpower to chase this themselves, so have asked me to do it.

I am fully expecting my insurance to write mine off, so am very reluctantly going to have to get another car that is not called Prius.

Even if they do fix, it I am in two minds whether I want to keep it or not. I would be paranoid about this happening again now. I have cleared everything out of the car as I fear I may never see it again after today.

I curse the scum that are doing this!

 

Hello,

Seems the thieves have moved up north to Blackburn, Lancashire.

This happened last night. 26/02/19 @ 22:00. It wasn't me personally affected but thought I would put it on here in case anyone recognises who it may be, and also just to raise awareness that this is still going on.

 

There is theft from Honda jazz Honda accords as well it seems some cars have more valuable metals I think it’s platinum that’s what they are after it has rocketed in value

 

Did you have any joy with the police please?

 

Has anyone seen this they stole the convertor broad daylight in the afternoon on a main road no fear of police passing by. The owner is inside the property when he comes out the block the door with their car. There is a trend most of these thieves like using German cars vw, Skoda and the like.

 

No contact from the police. The same goes for the other people I know it has happened to.
I guess it low priority.

 

They contacted me 48 hours after the event to politely tell me that they were closing the case due to insufficient evidence. The fact the whole thing was caught on Council CCTV was neither here nor there. They simply do not have the manpower to trawl through hours and hours of CCTV, so that was that - case closed.

 

Just watched the video you posted
100% the same guys that did mine!
That just shows absolutely nothing has been done about this.

 

What area was this?

 

Don’t they have time stamps? You can’t say look between xx:xx and xx:xx?

 

I have the police cctv and also dash cam footage and they advised as they didn’t have a clear face shot due to being covered up, they wouldn’t send out a circular.
I get that there are worse crimes going on, but it just very frustrating. Mine was stolen in December and there have been at least 10 that I know of that has happened since.

 

The London Metropolitan Police DO NOT want to pursue the matter any further....and that is that. They issue a crime number and Bob’s your uncle.

Officially, it can be argued that their budgets have been slashed repeatedly over the last few years by government, reducing them to toothless bulldogs. Ergo, they simply do not have the resources to deal with not just this type of crime, but thousands of others that they previously able to keep under control.

Unofficially, methinks they’re ALSO keeping a tight lid on the whole thing, as the thieves ARE from Eastern Europe (which sadly gives a rather bad name to EU immigration). The cars they drive are a dead giveaway - I know a fair few people from that corner of the world over here in London, and I am acutely aware that they virtually all purchase and drive the types of vehicles mentioned earlier in the thread. They simply use false registration plates which they regularly change.

As a result, there’s a great reluctance to apprehend and report the criminal shenanigans of this “enterprising” gang in the media, for fear of fuelling one side of the so called Brexit debacle. So, it’s tight lips all round and Police denies all knowledge.
Naturally, the decision would have been taken at the highest level for such a crime spree to be literally ignored.

Mind you, if they were targeting Rolls Royce’s and Bentleys, they’d have caught them kinda sharpish! However, since it’s just the ordinary “shmucks” in the street.....ain’t worth the hassle.

I’m pretty certain if a bunch of home grown BRITISH crooks embarked on the same crime spree over the last 6 months, they’d have (metaphorically speaking) liberally truncheoned them into submission within 60 days and paraded their ugly faces on National Media (with pride) for all to see - and sent them down for a lengthy stretch too.

I COULD BE WRONG.....but I’ve become overtly cynical enough to discount the possibility.

And yes, I’m very angry about these continuing crimes.


iPad ? Pro

 

This has hit the local news in our town now, and the police have advised through a statement that they are upping the patrols in the area.....

 

Taken from the news article:

Sgt Jon Cisco said: “These offences are being investigated and police patrols have been stepped up. I would like to reassure the public these offences are being taken extremely seriously.

“No arrests have been made and enquiries are ongoing.

“The majority of the vehicles targeted are Toyota Priuses and I would urge owners of such vehicles to be on their guard. There are products available that secure catalytic converters.

“If anyone does see a situation where people carrying out work on the underside of vehicles are acting suspiciously then I would encourage them not to approach them but to write down the make and registration of the vehicle and to contact the police.”

Sgt Cisco also asked anyone with CCTV footage of the recent thefts to contact police via 101.

 

In the last week,police have received several reports of cars, mainly Toyota Priuses, being targeted in areas of Blackburn, including Brookhouse, Audley, Bank Top and Corporation Park.

Victims said thieves are using hydraulic jacks to lift cars off the road and steal the exhaust-cleaning catalytic converters, which contain valuable metals such as rhodium, copper, nickel and platinum. Thieves are stealing the converters in less than a minute in some cases.

No arrests have been made and police said they are stepping up patrols in the town.

 

I had mine stolen on a very busy road opposite a busy McDonald’s in Enfield these guys are bold no fear at all. The thing is if you saw someone working under the car you would assume they are fixing it nobody would think twice about it being a theft. Unless they had been a victim of this themselves. Even then what would they do would you risk your personal safety this thieves maybe armed with knives and who knows what else. Those saying the alarm does not ring the Prius and many other cars don’t have tilt sensors so you can jack the car tow it away the alarm won’t ring. It only rings when the doors are opened or glass is broken and things accessed inside.

Hopefully they are not after the cheap aftermarket replacements. Unfortunately to a thief all will look like gold so they may take it and dispose of it but the owner is still out of pocket by £400/500 cos of the damage done. But having looked at the cctv these thieves inspect first so not sure if they are looking if it’s original item or if it has cat lock fitted or some sort of anti theft device.

If you search on Facebook twitter etc there is still thefts going on and some of the police are warning people to be alert but how can you be alert if these crooks come on your property block you inside and steal it?

I guess you could get cat lock and after market alarm cat lock is about £120 plus fitting and after market alarm with tilt sensor is between £400-500 fitted. Question is it worth spending that much money on a car that is worth £2000/3000 ? Your not going to recover that money upon resale. As for the alarm if these guys are so bold to steal it in broad daylight on your drive while your in the house what difference does an alarm make to them? Yes for your peace of mind maybe but these crooks seem fearless.

My Prius was valued at £1000 by Jemca for part ex. This was in Feb 2019 2007 plate with 130,000 on the clock.