Catalytic converters cut off parked cars -beware

[silo]

Posting this is hopefully a useful heads-up to everyone in response to a new motoring hazard I just experienced, beyond being therapeutic for the exasperation it has evoked in me.

My wife parked on Ulverscroft Road yesterday afternoon to shop on North Cross Road and Lordship lane. She noticed the car was unusually noisy on returning and mentioned it to me after using it again this morning. Seeing the exhaust hanging low I took it to kwik-fit who took one look/listen and diagnosed "someone's taken your catalytic converter, sorry...expensive!."

They are stolen for the platinum scrap value. The parts supplier had had 4 such cases in the East Dulwich area in the last 24 hours. The Kwik-fit guy observed that the removal method was the same as the others. One customer had theirs taken in Sainsbury's car park. They were slightly surprised they targeted my lowly astra estate as they usually preferred 4x4's which afford more crawling room underneath. They use a powered pipe shearing tool that squashes and cuts the exhaust pipe in one clean movement that takes only moments (see attached image). apparently for low cars they send children under....

The replacement cost for mine is ?344. After paying the excess of ?150 and losing 2 years no claims bonus and hours making statements etc... this is another cost that's not worth claiming on....sigh

curious how they did it I've found this eminently suitable tool which will do up to 85mm diameters.

http://www.cabletooling.co.uk/Cable_Cutters/battery-hydraulic-cable-cutter-85mm

[pinecone]

That is one clean cut.

[silo]

Sure is, I have to admire their efficiency as well as cheek. here's an image of both together

-s

[silo]

and here's the other very clean cut just for the record....and to get it off my chest before going back to Kwik-fit for the replacement in a few minutes...gnnnnnnr.

-s

[silo]

met another guy at Kwik-fit with the same problem, also done yesterday afternoon on Melbourne Grove. We both made reports to the police who commiserated as they regularly lose their converters too....great. they confirmed the modus operandi with the tool which takes 60secs max. It's used for cutting the thick copper cables beside the underground tracks.... The operators dress up in hi-vis workmen's clothes and target quiet camera-free streets. Police advice is to park near CCTV in well lit areas.

-s

[Sue]

Shouldn't the police be asking questions of the people who buy platinum scrap?

Or am I just naive?

ETA: Sorry about your car.

[roadie]

Sorry to hear of your car Silo.

It also happened to my parents car late last year when they were visiting us to see their first grandchild. Took the shine of that visit. That was in Honor Oak or near Sydenham woods (the two places the car was parked), it's shocking how quick and brazen these crooks are.

[Burbage]

Sue Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Shouldn't the police be asking questions of the

> people who buy platinum scrap?

>

> Or am I just naive?

Yes and no. On a practical level, they could do, and probably will. But I doubt they'll get many answers, as it wouldn't be difficult to lose a few thousand extra convertors among all the cars that are scrapped each year, and where there's money, as the banking crisis showed, there's impunity.

On a theoretical level, Plod has better things to do. it's of course dreadful that people can't leave precious things unattended in the street all night without having their bits nicked, and the police have a responsibility to reduce all crime, even those that are practically invited. But, given I have to carry my pushbike up three flights of stairs on account of Plod's decades-old indifference to the bicycle-theft epidemic, I fail to see why the better-heeled and lazier, who insist on cluttering the gutters with the noisy, smelly junk they're too mean to properly garage, should get preferential treatment.

[silo]

Hi Sue,

thanks,

AFAIK regulating scrap merchants is a very old debate. They hold that it would be unworkable and not their responsibility to effectively police their customers, so they would go out of business. The green imperative these days tends to weigh in on their side too.

s

[silo]

here's how a bespoke recycling tool does the job...er plus a few others mostly american(sorry still ghoulishly fascinated by the how and why this happens)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpM5ByOGk8Q

-s