PSA: How to Protect Your Vehicle from Catalytic Converter Theft

Readers on our open thread from a few weeks back reported catalytic converter thefts on Cranberry off Hicks and Joralemon off Hicks. Nextdoor is flush with posts about thefts in surrounding neighborhoods. The 84th Precinct tweeted that there’s a rise in thefts in the Downtown area and here’s how they suggest you protect your vehicles:

CatalyticConverter

Meanwhile, the crime has become such a scourge all over the state, an NYPD Detective, Maureen Stefenelli, started a new initiative with the DMV called “Who Let the Cats Out.” According to this article, the DMV will start providing kits to auto dealers to etch a traceable serial number onto catalytic converters.

Share this Story:

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7nPOzGeyaw Arch Stanton

    The link is dead?

  • Mary Kim

    Which link, Arch? The graphic is a photo. There’s a link to the tweet in the text.

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7nPOzGeyaw Arch Stanton

    I guess the photo is what’s missing, a big blank square with a question mark in the center. I got the link now, Thanks.

  • meschwar

    I agree that the picture doesn’t show.

  • Mary Kim

    Sorry about that, strange glitch. It’s just a graphic that says:

    Have your mechanic:

    Etch the VIN # on it.
    Paint it a bright color.
    Place a metal plate protecting & enforcing it.

  • aeshtron

    Other ways to avoid Catalytic Converter Theft:
    – Don’t own/lease a motor vehicle — use public transportation, walk, use taxis, unicycle, etc.
    – Buy/lease a polluting EV with appalling build quality as they don’t have catalytic converters.
    – Keep your pollution-belching motor vehicles on your own property behind a locked gate/door instead of on public property where it is most vulnerable.

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7nPOzGeyaw Arch Stanton

    Who tf are you to infer that your neighbors “don’t need a motor vehicle or that they can get by without one? Simply because YOU don’t need a car, doesn’t mean nobody else does.
    Sounds like you’ve been successfully brainwashed by TransAlt rhetoric.

  • aeshtron

    Arch — you make me smile. Thank you for giving me a laugh when I’m having a tough day : )

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7nPOzGeyaw Arch Stanton

    Yup, Spreading the joy, that what I’m all about.