Prius Cat Theft Tracking

"tone death"?

 

San Diego victim was hit twice in a 2 year span on a Gen II: North Park man chase suspects during catalytic converter theft

 

The thieves are moving to Gen cats. Until I saw this video from the UK, I thought they were tougher to steal because of the preheater coolant lines.

Not so, I figured out that will the proper technique, it requires removing the two spring loaded bolts, cutting the wires to the oxygen sensor and one cut with a Sawzall while avoiding the preheater coolant filled pipes.

 

Portland cat thieves caught in the act, held for police:

Homeowner pulls gun on accused catalytic converter thieves, thinking they were raccoons | KOMO

And last week, a Portland cat thief sentenced to more than a year:

Man sentenced to more than a year in prison for catalytic converter theft | KATU

 

I had mine stolen in Irvine last weekend from a gen 2. The dealerships are all saying that Cats are on backorder, and have already been waiting 30+ days for a replacements. This really sucks because I was planning on moving across the country with this vehicle in about a month from CA to NY, which is also a CARB compliant state yeah?

Anyone have any leads on getting a legit cat faster?

 

Get an aftermarket catalytic converter, and move to New Jersey.

 

Yep.
Put a temp straight pipe on the car until you start driving east, and find out what the procedures are for getting your car smogged in New York, and which cats there are NY smog compliant (they have some.)
Once you get out from behind the tinsel curtain you can have an aftermarket cat installed in the car.

If you want to go for style points you can wait until your car is in NY and get a cat there, but you have ZERO incentive for replacing the cat in the SoCal, and the folks in NY may not actually crawl under your car to check and see if you have a Yota cat....or just one that....works.

New York Vehicle Emissions Inspection Laws

In most sane states that perform VETs they either do an OBD2 check (look for codes) or they give your car a proctology exam and actually measure the exhaust to see if your car is within standards.......and Priuses are probably compliant even without a catalytic converter....and certainly WELL within state standards with a working cat installed.

Remember...the only reason this whole flap-a-doodle got started is that G2s were supposed to be some kinda SDESLEV (super-duper, extremely smug low emissions vehicle)
Super ultra-low emission vehicle - Wikipedia
Most other cars just had to be "good nuff."

Find out what's real-world "good nuff" for the zip code that you're going to actually be registering the car in and do what it takes to meet the standard THERE!

Good Luck!

 

As a stopgap, can you visit Nevada or Arizona to have a temporary straight pipe or cheap cat installed? Presuming that you don't have a smog inspection due before you move out of California. This would at least kick the can down the road until you can get homed in your new state and have some waiting time available for a legitimate part.

Though the time window there, before you must re-register in that state, may not be long enough either.

 

See also:
Catalytic Converter Theft | Page 7 | PriusChat

 

Sounds like they were pissed he had straight piped it so they vandalized him instead.

 

Ind makes Cat theft a felony:

5 arrested in catalytic converter investigation, businesses and individuals targeted

 

Interesting, thanks!

From the Article: Wow!
In January 2022, undercover investigators began bringing catalytic converters to the businesses to sell. Investigators documented numerous cases where the businesses purchased the converters without the documents to make the sale legal.
During this time, detectives determined that the individuals involved in the case were capable of dealing with up to 1,500 catalytic converters in a day.

 

It’s a start

 

Just a continuation of the penalize the crime victim problem.
Maybe the law ought to be that if your cat is stolen, you get a straight pipe license until the authorities find the thief and recover enough money for you to replace it.