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You and your Cat: Treasured friends

There's been quite a bit of talk around town about catalytic converter thefts. After a local friend had his stolen from his truck in January, I asked the B'game police about how common it is in town. Here are the stats:

Statistics on catalytic converter thefts:

• 2020 monthly average: 6
• 2021 monthly average: 9
• Jan 2022: 12
• Feb 2022: 4

Some aspects of this are worth sharing like: Toyota Prius and trucks are the most common targets. Prius because the converters in hybrid vehicles tend to be more valuable and trucks because they sit higher off the ground making it easier to access the converter (i.e. no jack needed). My Landcruiser actually has two–a twofer.

The replacement my friend had to get was $2,800 (mostly covered by insurance) and he decided to add a cable and lock to the new one.

I hope anyone who gets hit reports it to BPD. One might think "it's gone, so what's the point?" but we need to keep track of this sort of thing if it is to get the attention it deserves.

On the bright side, BPD actually caught a couple of catalytic converter thieves on January 11th (early morning hours) in the 1400 block of Benito Ave. An alert resident called it in. Hopefully there will be more arrests to come as people become more aware.

Update:  I just heard about two more Cat thefts in the Lyon-Hoag neighborhood over the last month or so.  And here is a photo of the well-secured Cat–10" stainless steel zip ties, 3/16" steel cable and some clamps.  It would probably take you a couple of hours.

CatConv

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16 responses to “You and your Cat: Treasured friends”

  1. MBGA

    I had Spitelli’s in Belmont install a Cat Shield. I wanted to use a Burlingame shop but Spitelli’s had the best price for me.
    But that is not a solution. It’s pleasant to hear that a couple thieves were caught early one morning and yes, thank you to the neighbor that called the police and thank you to the police that caught the thieves. But I suspect those fine hard working guys are back out on the street right now. They are probably illegally here, and dealing with chop shops run by people that are illegally here. And actually my assumption about there legal status is not even the point. They might be home grown blond men trying to pay their way through med school. (well, we know that’s not gonna happen because I doubt any respectable med school wants to educate a person of that persuasion.)
    The point is: that what we consider an acceptable punishment is known at some level by the people that choose to do crime. They know that if they are caught they will be out on bail very quickly and if they eventually do end up in court they will probably not go to prison, and if they do go to prison they will probably get out pretty quickly.
    To fix crime we need to change our tolerance for crime by changing our ideas of what is acceptable punishment. Until we move, and narrow, the Overton window we will never get a handle on this problem.
    I better stop there.

  2. Peter Garrison

    What is lacking is the moral understanding that not only are they committing a crime but that first of all what they are doing is wrong.
    I agree stronger punishments are needed to deter the harmful effects. Even our Governor and the mayor of SF are realizing this fact. But moral teaching in the home and church is the basis for any real change to the moral sense of right and wrong.

  3. MBGA

    I agree that it is fundamentally a moral problem. But fixing the family and adopting church values is pretty much out of the question at this point.
    Expecting the leadership from a Newsom or any politician to the left of Idi Amin is expecting way too much of them. The problems and solutions, and more strickingly, the obvious failure of the only solutions Democrats know how to do, have stared liberals in the face for a very long time. For many systemic reasons Democrat leadership is absolutely incapable of significanlty changing to the degree that is necessary to fix crime, and morality.
    It’s easy to predict that the Democrats will proudly announce that they have this new great idea to hire more police, buy more cameras and contract survalience, and add more district attorneys, conforming to their social justice ideology. And no matter how much money they throw at it it will never be effective, because getting caught and getting prosecuted is not much of a deterent.
    Punishment that makes a potential criminal weigh whether it is worth doing a crime will have an effect. Even stupid people, or poorly socialized people, or people from other cultures, can weigh their options.
    Society’s commitment to profound punishment is the only deterent now. We will have to change what we consider acceptable punishment, and that hardly requires more police, cameras, or courts. Sorry to say.

  4. Joe

    From the DJ….the beat goes on…
    A San Mateo police officer Monday night spotted a Toyota Corolla with an open hood and trunk and Prius on a jack in a Hillsdale Shopping Center parking lot and discovered the car was stolen, according to police.
    At about 10:16 p.m., the officer saw three men standing near the vehicles and they quickly removed the jack from under the Prius, then placed it into the open trunk of the Corolla, according to police.
    https://www.smdailyjournal.com/news/local/san-mateo-officer-allegedly-catches-catalytic-converter-thieves-in-action/article_1a5e80b0-a4dc-11ec-ac85-338a84819ef3

  5. Joe

    This appears to say the guy has been in jail for five months and then gets three years’ probation after pleading “no contest”….
    A man accused of stealing catalytic converters from cars in the Marina Point complex in Foster City pleaded no contest to burglary and has been sentenced to three years probation, the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office said.
    Wilfredo Jimenez Aguilar, 25, and another accomplice were accused of entering the underground parking garage through a broken security gate at the Foster City complex Feb. 26 and casing parked cars.
    Police spotted the pair and pulled them over, with officers finding two catalytic converters and tools on them.
    Jimenez Aguilar pleaded on contest May 10 and also received credit for around five months of time served in county jail.
    https://www.smdailyjournal.com/news/local/foster-city-catalytic-converter-thief-sentenced/article_92823b62-d0d4-11ec-9dae-7fea38fbc1bb?utm_source=smdailyjournal.com&utm_campaign=%2Fnewsletters%2Fheadlines%2F%3F-dc%3D1652277604&utm_medium=email&utm_content=headline

  6. MBGA

    See above.

  7. Joe

    Check out the photo that the DJ has of all the stolen Cats. Quite a night in San Mateo and H’borough:
    https://www.smdailyjournal.com/news/local/wheel-of-alleged-catalytic-converter-thief-hits-cop-car-in-san-mateo/article_087c5b54-1478-11ed-affc-0f09a1841db5?utm_source=smdailyjournal.com&utm_campaign=%2Fnewsletters%2Fheadlines%2F%3F-dc%3D1659708013&utm_medium=email&utm_content=read%20more

  8. MBGA

    See above.

  9. hollyroller@gmail.com

    Wow. You folks are Very Angry.
    Isn’t there a City of Burlingame Neighborhood Watch Program? If there is, why?
    I have many thoughts regarding a “City of Burlingame Vigilante Club.”
    We can meet at the New Rec.& Park Center.
    It has already been approved.
    In order to join, you MUST make a minimum of 1.5 million Dollars a year, Catholic School Financial Supporter, and Volunteer your entire family to pick up debris along Rollins Road Sound Wall 3 times a year.
    Lets Do it!

  10. hillsider

    Oh Boy.
    Paloma Ave. I have been watching you flatlanders from my perch up on Hillside Dr.

  11. Joe

    A Cat a Day:
    South San Francisco has seen an increase in catalytic converter thefts, up to one per day on average, Police Chief Scott Campbell reported this week during a town hall on auto-related property crimes.
    Campbell, joined by Mayor Mark Nagales and state Sen. Josh Becker, D-San Mateo, held a town hall on the subject this week in response to mounting frustration over the thefts, which can leave drivers with repair bills upwards of $3,000.
    https://www.smdailyjournal.com/news/local/catalytic-converter-thefts-on-the-rise-in-south-city/article_8564cffe-1863-11ed-aa92-1f5398dccc7d?utm_source=smdailyjournal.com&utm_campaign=%2Fnewsletters%2Fheadlines%2F%3F-dc%3D1660140006&utm_medium=email&utm_content=read%20more

  12. Joe

    I had my cat replaced at Putnam Toyota today. It wasn’t stolen–just old and setting off the O2 sensor. I asked the service advisor “How many cats are you doing these days?” The answer was “About 5 per week for Prius’s”!!!!!! And the worst part is some of the older Prius catalytic converters are hard to get. They have some clients’ Pious’s on the lot for months waiting for the new cat to arrive……

  13. Joe

    Bring it on, Feds! From the WSJ today:
    Federal authorities took a big crack at catalytic converter thefts, announcing raids and arrests from California to New Jersey on Wednesday to break up a network of thieves, dealers and processors that netted hundreds of millions of dollars from the fast-growing crime.
    Catalytic converters are cylindrical hunks of metal in the exhaust system of most cars that use pricey metals such as platinum, palladium and rhodium to break down harmful gasses into less harmful ones. Thefts have been skyrocketing in recent years as thieves using battery-powered saws and high-speed jacks make off with the devices in less than a minute.
    Federal, local and state authorities carried out arrests, searches and seizures in California, Oklahoma, Wyoming, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Nevada, North Carolina, and Virginia, the Justice Department said in a press release.
    Authorities charged 21 defendants from five states in indictments unsealed Wednesday in the Eastern District of California and the Northern District of Oklahoma, officials said. Authorities said they executed more than 32 search warrants and seized millions of dollars in homes, bank accounts, cash and luxury vehicles.
    —————
    I just gotta say, this shouldn’t be that hard. Go after whoever is buying chopped-off cats and make them show where they got them and from whom.

  14. Joe

    Cat news of the week:
    The Justice Department this week seized millions of dollars of assets in five states and arrested 21 people — including the three Sacramento County residents — suspected of selling stolen catalytic converters to a single New Jersey metal refinery. It was the first chapter of what the department is calling a “coordinated takedown” of a “national network of thieves.”
    Metal recyclers accused of orchestrating a multimillion-dollar, cross-country crime ring grew so successful trading catalytic converters that had been sawed from vehicles that they had a specialized phone app providing real-time prices for the stolen precious metals.
    ——————-
    “There’s an app for that”
    While I’m on this thread, my neighbor just had his Audi stolen off our street. It’s a well-known (to thieves) ploy that exploits this: The following Models have an emergency key in the glove box on the left-hand side: New Model A4 – A5 and Q5. REMOVE THE EMERGENCY KEY AND THE SLEEVE from the glove box and store safely out with the car.
    People don’t know it’s there, the dealer doesn’t tell them and they don’t read the manual. The whole theft took less than a minute!

  15. Joe

    CATGUARD is here, well, in San Mateo…
    Recognizing the surge of catalytic converter thefts both here and in the state, the San Mateo Police Department bought 500 CATGUARD self-install marking kits for the city’s residents.
    The device works by placing an ultra-destruct sticker with a unique serial number on a cold catalytic converter. The metal etching fluid is applied over the sticker. Then the engine of the vehicle is started to heat the converter, which results in the unique number from the sticker being etched onto the catalytic converter.
    https://www.smdailyjournal.com/news/local/san-mateo-police-1st-in-california-to-offer-catguard/article_5422582c-6704-11ed-82ed-bb057349d466?utm_source=smdailyjournal.com&utm_campaign=%2Fnewsletters%2Fweek-in-review%2F%3F-dc%3D1668963612&utm_medium=email&utm_content=headline

  16. Joe

    San Jose has a good idea—not sure why Sacramento doesn’t focus on things like this instead of leaving it to individual cities:
    With the rampant theft of catalytic converters long a vexing problem for thousands of frustrated car owners, San Jose leaders want to make it easier to nab the culprits pilfering the valuable devices from vehicles in the city.
    City leaders are proposing tweaking the current ordinance to make possessing an unattached catalytic converter illegal without proof of ownership. Individuals without proof of ownership would also face harsher fines. Currently, law enforcement and prosecutors can only seize and press charges for the devices when the car part bears identifying marks, such as the original car owner’s license plate number.
    San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan and Councilmembers David Cohen and Pam Foley are pushing for the change. The city’s rules committee approved the ordinance change on Wednesday, and a full council is expected in early 2024.
    The law would institute a series of escalating fines if the same individual is found possessing stolen catalytic converters within the same year, though a specific dollar figure was not immediately available.
    Police say they ran into the limitations of the current laws in November when an officer stopped a stolen vehicle that contained 14 catalytic converters, according to a memo drafted by councilmembers. In that instance, police could only seize the two catalytic converts that had etchings identifying the original owner. Under the new ordinance, the driver could have faced charges and fines for all 14.

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