Badmovies.org Forum

To paraphase my favorite Weekly World News columnist Ed Anger:
I'm madder than Oprah Winfrey with a fat free donut because some creep stole the catalytic converter from my truck!

I have to go file a stinkin' POLICE REPORT right now, so more later...

I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often. They have platinum in them and from what's i've heard, there are places that pay good money for them in bulk.

Yep, it seems there is a rash of these thefts in this area right now. It was on the local news a few day ago which NATURALLY GIVES MORE GOONS THE BIG IDEA TO GO OUT AND STEAL 'EM!

I actually got off lucky, so to speak. The bandits very politely clipped the thing right off with a reciprocal saw rather than ripping out the whole exhaust sytem. It cost me $240.00 to repair (no, I haven't check on insurance or any of that) but the guys at the shop said they've seen these cases where there is a couple of thousand dollars worth of damage done. The manager even had a little cross section of converter to show customers what the hooligans are after.

Older model coverters are what's targeted. The newer ones and the replacements don't have the bit precious metal the thugs are after. I'm thinking of putting a sign on the side of my truck alerting any future platinum pirates my coverter has been pre-stolen and is no use to them.

Sorry to hear about this problem, Raffine. Good luck to you. Here' s what happened to me one time...

In 2004 I was at a nice park in suburbia, hanging out for the day with my four-year-old cousin, and when we got back to my car, he said he smelled gasoline. I did too. Under my car was a rapidly evaporating puddle of fuel. I got down and looked and someone had punched about ten tiny holes in my gas tank.

I quickly ran thru the lists of disgruntled whoevers from my life and none came to mind as a likely suspect, so I had my same cousin's dad, who co-owns a garage, come get us and I asked if someone was trying to steal the gas tank or what, and he said people steal air bags, hub caps, converters, etc. but not gas tanks. Totally puzzled me and puzzled him except to say he figured it was kids being destructive.

I filed a police report that evening, and the cops knew all about punctured gas tanks. Turns out someone they called an eco-terrrorist had been going around the city punching holes in the gas tanks of cars they thought needed to be stopped. (And, no, it wasn't an SUV or anything, even.) So I got a new fuel tank put in and it hasn't happened twice, but I still think what a strange way to fight for the ecology, to damage some girl's car when she's out with a little kid.

Maybe your people will get busted soon, Raffine.

Eco-terrorists are in my experience, from the same mold as many of the 60's stoner hippies: Rebels without a clue, uneducated deadbeats that oppose anything whose opposition allows them to do nothing but hang out with other uneducated deadbeats. I was reading the blog of a guy trying to make cost-effective conversion kits for trucks, even big tractor-trailer rigs, to convert them to CNG or such. First, people complained that he STARTED with a Hummer. He pointed out that a compact that gets 45 miles to the gallon isn't exactly where the focus of conservation should START, but rather to reign in the vehicles that make 10x the emissions. They just didn't get it, and it to me looked like people complaining that people drove trucks and had nothing to do with emissions. He had all kinds of green stickers on the rig, but those idiots still sliced all 5 tires and broke the windshield. So, their accomplishments were: 1) Delay the research on a true emission/energy crisis solution by several weeks. 2) Set said research back over $1000 3) add 5 tires and a windshield to the local landfill. Now that's what I call progress  :lookingup:
Some of the responses to his blog were verbal diarrhea like "If you make big trucks alternative fuel and low emissions, that still promotes people buying trucks". I'm not sure what they mean, to me it sounds like they are already gearing up to complain about the solution to their current set of complaints. One of the founders of Greenpeace, who has since departed the organization, went on record to say that Greenpeace is NOT a group of environmental activists, but rather a group of anti-industry activists, and have targeted businesses that have some of the lowest environmental impact levels and some of the highest standards. He went on to say that only after someone pointed out those points would they back off, as if they did little or no research on those issues before rallying their followers. Sad sad sad. .


BTW, I had my gas tank perforated before, it was just plainly to steal gas. I had a locking cap on it, which I immediately took off. Gas tanks these days are hard to siphon out of, it might have been that drilling holes was simply the easiest and quickest way to get the fuel out. .
 

Not to mention spilling fuel all over, necessitating the manufacture of more gas tanks, and ultimately not getting any cars off the road. Sounds like the work of a moron to me.

The irony of a catalytic converter theft is that I remember the days when it would be the first thing we'd get rid of on a car. :teddyr: