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Another Catalytic converter stolen in Chicago Area

68K views 187 replies 88 participants last post by  wannahonda 
#1 · (Edited)
http://imgur.com/IwQAR
My catalytic converter was stolen from underneath my Honda Element today while it was parked behind my office. It happened in broad daylight. I actually heard the saw but there is construction going on in the building and I didn't think that someone was sawing it from underneath my car. According to the police blotter for Oak Park, about 2-5 are being stolen per week. I tried to be extra diligent while parking it overnight making sure it was parked in a brightly lit highly populated area. However they hit me when my guard was down.

If you stole it and you're reading this **** you.

Can someone look at the image and tell me what other parts have been stolen? I need to price out a replacement, hopefully not from the dealer.
 
#2 · (Edited)
I really don't want to be the barer of bad news , # 1 hopefully you had insurance , if not , the cost of just the cat from the dealer is about 800 bucks , not including the sensors , their are two , so each is about 120 , that might have gone along with it , I know first hand as I purchased my element with a missing cat , cost me almost a grand with welding , hence the cheap price i paid for her . The element is high off the ground and almost too easy of prey for thieves to resist ....... an aftermarket cat might cost cheaper , but I personally didn't feel comfortable with that , not over 100 bucks savings , if you do go that route , check it VERY carefully, especially where the sensors go , some will sell you something that isn't quite right ......
Good luck

Just saw your image , you're missing the blue sensor $120ish bank 2 , after cat , again go honda part , most aftermarket sensors aren't compatible with your element .
 
#9 ·
Im in chicago and have started hearing more and more about this happening. I decided to check that Im covered by insurance, then I also went to home depot and got a 5ft piece of aircraft cable, threaded it through the cat then through the frame right above the cat. used a heavy duty compression fitting which ended up hidden in the frame. This wont stop anyone but cost was $6 and took about an hour to put in place. Its visible and difficult to cut with a sawsall. Hoping its enough to deter the common quick theif enough to go somewhere else.

Finally, Im pestering my alderman to sponsor a bill to prevent recycling centers from taking numerous items that simply cant be gotten by people who arent stealing them. No one has access to 20 catalytic converters they just want to recycle on a regular basis. Recycling centers should be held accountable for taking obviously stolen items.
 
#11 ·
Recycling centers should be held accountable for taking obviously stolen items.
Amen! It reminds me of when you read about guard rails being stolen along lonely stretches of highway...what recycling center is accepting a pick-up truck full of guard rail sections? Catalytic converters should get a serial # applied, just like a VIN#, that is unique to the car and linked to the VIN#. If/when you replace it (how often does that really happen?) they could change the serial# in some sort of official database. Thay way stolen ones could be tracked, as could a suspicious character that shows up with 20 of them.
 
#10 · (Edited)
Cat Clamp

I purchased a standard Cat Clamp from www.CatClamp.com for $160 with shipping. My preferred Honda mechanic at Coggin Honda in Jacksonville, Florida installed it for $100. Sure, it cost a few bucks but the deterrent value should be worth the expenditure. I travel to many places around the US (including Chicago) and I wanted to insure that my converter was secure.
 

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#13 ·
I still like my idea of taking one of those paint bombs bank tellers put in the $$ bags when they get robbed and somehow rigging it so when someone tries to hack your cc out they get blasted...then you just look for the idiot staggering down the street covered in permanent neon pink paint :razz:
 
#17 ·
Anybody who's purchased and installed a "catclamp", has it prevented the theft of your converter a second time? Mine was stolen in Chicago from behind my office last Thursday. Also wondering if running boards/nerf bars would be a deterrent as well due to the lower ground profile, harder to fit under the vehicle.
 
#18 ·
Catalytic Converter Stolen

I live in Chicago and someone recently crawled under my Element and sawed out my catalytic converter. Apparently its pretty popular around here especially with elements. All together it cost me $1600 to replace everything. Just wondering if this has happened to anyone else and what protective measures to take...they sell "cat cages" but they don't seem very reliable. I've seen some belly guards for Jeeps but I can't find anything similar for an element. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
Thanks, Jen - Chicago
 
#21 ·
Whereabouts in Chicago, guys? It's a really big place. I saw one link which referenced West Town and the OP talking about Oak Park. These are relatively close together, so I'm forced to wonder if this is an area-specific phenomenon rather than a region-wide issue. Please convince me otherwise.
 
#22 · (Edited by Moderator)
Just got my catalytic converter stolen at 5am this morning by two guys in a early '90's silver Chevy Astro van. I heard my alarm and took just a little too long to get out of bed. Looks like they reached in from the passenger side with a reciprocating saw because my neighbor said one of them was running from the sidewalk to the doubled parked getaway van when he looked out the window. I have the side steps and the steps didn't stop the fu(kers if anyone is wondering. I think they were able to reach from the passenger side because of the low curb / sidewalk height. If you're the degenerate MFs that did it, I will be replacing it and will be waiting for you to try it again. Just to let you know that I would have emptied my gun's ammo clip on your piece of $hit astro van at first if you were any closer. So please please please let me catch you underneath my Element one day.
 
#27 ·
I have a 2003 EX so I switched over to liability a a few years ago at the same time my extended warranty expired so I had to pay out of pocket. I told my mechanic to order the cheapest aftermarket cat and the cheapest aftermarket O2 sensor since my E is almost 10 years old after all. I just can't justify shelling out $1300 for oem parts to have them come back and steal it again. My mechanic also told me that the cheap after market cats don't have the valuable platinum inside that the thieves are stealing the oem ones for but I don't know how true that is...

I was able to retrieved some surveillance videos from a school I parked in front of and the updated description of the thieves' vehicle is a silver late model ford windstar. It was too dark out to get a read of the license plate numbers but the camera was close enough to confirm the description of the thieves from my earlier post in this thread which was edited by a moderator due to "racial content". So I am going to try again and use the p.c. term of African American which is a dead on description of both of the thieves I saw on the surveillance videos. They cut the cat after the front O2 sensor so I only had to replace the one with the blue connector that plugs into the cat.
 
#25 ·
Based on the experiences in St. Louis, the way to solve this problem is to hold the scrap buyers accountable, and require ID and payment by check for certain scrap types - copper, air conditioners and catalytic converters. It all but shut down cat thefts here, and the black market buyers that pop-up from time to time get official attention very quickly.

Chicago needs to do the same thing.
 
#36 ·
... Probably get the owner of the E in trouble but at least they'd get what they deserved.
No s***... big trouble. Major felony trouble. Booby traps intended to kill or injure are considered premeditated acts. If somebody was actually hurt or killed, you'd be looking at decades of hard time, minimum.

This isn't Hollywood. It may be an interesting notion to fantasize over, but the reality is quite the opposite.
 
#37 ·
The problem as I see it is a hard truth: this area of Chicago is not safe for Elements. There is obviously a (as in one) perp, or a team of two, who has identified Elements as an easy mark. They cruise the streets looking for Elements that are regular to a particular location, and once they've cased it, swoop in for the kill. I suggest that with all this obvious practice, they have the operation down to about 30-45 seconds, and they're gone.

Have any of you brought the pattern to the attention of the police when you made your report?
 
#39 ·
>...converters that need to be replaced are worth anything.

Yes. That's the problem. The rare-earth catalyst metals are not consumed, they still remain valuable. So a scrap dealer cannot discern between true scrap discarded from a repair shop or a working cat hacked out of a parked car. What makes it worse is that Honda uses an additional rare metal that most others don't, jacking-up the scrap value considerably.

I have to emphasize again that this problem is ONE perpetrator/team who's tagged Elements (and maybe Pilots, too) as easy marks. The problem won't go away until they're caught, and I daresay even if caught, it will result in little jail time unless they can connect them to more than two or three. IOW, even if caught they'll be back.

I'm watching this very closely because my office is in Schaumburg, although I mostly work from home downstate. If this idiot starts plying his trade in the western suburbs, I may have to rent cars to attend in-office meetings to mitigate the risk. What a pain.
 
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