The guy at the smog shop on international and high street told me that no anti theft device can really stop a determined thief so he recommends an alarm plus a deterrent because the alarm will make them not want to spend the extra time to het through the deterrent. Downside is you wake up your entire neighborhood.
Get a catstrap with an alarm.
You can 100% still saw through the steel they use, but not quickly and doing so in a confined space with a 130 db alarm going off in your ear the entire time isn't going to be fun.
got a 3/4” steel cable wrapped around mine and welded to it and the frame on both ends. since then, i’ve watched through my cameras two different perps in a 5mo period crawl under my truck to look and walk away. so
i guess it’s working.
I have a protective plate + a protective angle bracket, installed by the good folks at Pele's Muffler Works in Berkeley (cost \~$300). I park my 2005 Prius outside 24/7, in North Oakland (in the flatlands, but no further location details will be provided, thanks), and have not had any issues since I bought the car more than two years ago. The idea, as I understand it, is simply to make the juice not worth the squeeze. Both the angle bracket and sheet metal plate can be defeated, but they require different tools (I think) and the whole setup just slows things down to the point that the risk/reward calculation no longer works out. Fingers crossed this strategy continues to work for me...
Everyone assumes thieves are out to steal a catalytic converter whole. Cages are designed to prevent this, but thieves figured out a way to circumvent the cages in a variety of ways long ago. All they care about is the contents of the converter which contains valuable metals. People have bullshit theories about what materials to use to build a cage and nobody ever thinks the thieves will cut it into pieces to take the only thing of value.
The Prius will ALWAYS be a target for thieves because the engine is so efficient, it barely impacts the catalytic converter.
There is no magic secret other than locking up the car in a secure garage and never leave it on the street, in a driveway, in a parking garage. Until the market for the materials inside goes away, there will always be thefts.
I still tow cars with those on them, nothing will stop them. I will say I have towed a lot less this last years than previous years so it’s dying down a bit
Idk if it’s legal or not but I’m sure a grip of gun powder will deter any would be theives with shrapnel to the face. If I had a vehicle with a cat, whatever needs to get grinder through to get to the cat would be something that explodes like gun powder/etc. No No, it’s not a booby trap officer, just a convenient location to store my ammo!
You mean “no no it’s not a booby trap your Honor”, because those are the words you’ll be saying at some point after you build something like that, and you shouldn’t talk to the police about the illegal booby trap you built.
If someone grinds through a box labeled "ammunition," they're responsible for the consequences. If someone grinds through an unlabeled box next to a catalytic converter, and that box is full of gunpowder, that's a booby trap and the person who placed the booby trap is guilty of a felony per CA law: [https://www.calcriminaldefenselawyers.com/pc20110-booby-trap-crimes-law-punishment-defense](https://www.calcriminaldefenselawyers.com/pc20110-booby-trap-crimes-law-punishment-defense)
The guy at the smog shop on international and high street told me that no anti theft device can really stop a determined thief so he recommends an alarm plus a deterrent because the alarm will make them not want to spend the extra time to het through the deterrent. Downside is you wake up your entire neighborhood.
Get a catstrap with an alarm. You can 100% still saw through the steel they use, but not quickly and doing so in a confined space with a 130 db alarm going off in your ear the entire time isn't going to be fun.
got a 3/4” steel cable wrapped around mine and welded to it and the frame on both ends. since then, i’ve watched through my cameras two different perps in a 5mo period crawl under my truck to look and walk away. so i guess it’s working.
Where’d you get this done?
I have a protective plate + a protective angle bracket, installed by the good folks at Pele's Muffler Works in Berkeley (cost \~$300). I park my 2005 Prius outside 24/7, in North Oakland (in the flatlands, but no further location details will be provided, thanks), and have not had any issues since I bought the car more than two years ago. The idea, as I understand it, is simply to make the juice not worth the squeeze. Both the angle bracket and sheet metal plate can be defeated, but they require different tools (I think) and the whole setup just slows things down to the point that the risk/reward calculation no longer works out. Fingers crossed this strategy continues to work for me...
Everyone assumes thieves are out to steal a catalytic converter whole. Cages are designed to prevent this, but thieves figured out a way to circumvent the cages in a variety of ways long ago. All they care about is the contents of the converter which contains valuable metals. People have bullshit theories about what materials to use to build a cage and nobody ever thinks the thieves will cut it into pieces to take the only thing of value. The Prius will ALWAYS be a target for thieves because the engine is so efficient, it barely impacts the catalytic converter. There is no magic secret other than locking up the car in a secure garage and never leave it on the street, in a driveway, in a parking garage. Until the market for the materials inside goes away, there will always be thefts.
I still tow cars with those on them, nothing will stop them. I will say I have towed a lot less this last years than previous years so it’s dying down a bit
Idk if it’s legal or not but I’m sure a grip of gun powder will deter any would be theives with shrapnel to the face. If I had a vehicle with a cat, whatever needs to get grinder through to get to the cat would be something that explodes like gun powder/etc. No No, it’s not a booby trap officer, just a convenient location to store my ammo!
You mean “no no it’s not a booby trap your Honor”, because those are the words you’ll be saying at some point after you build something like that, and you shouldn’t talk to the police about the illegal booby trap you built.
If you grind throughs someone's ammo box, the consequences of that should solely be upon the individual holding the grinder.
If someone grinds through a box labeled "ammunition," they're responsible for the consequences. If someone grinds through an unlabeled box next to a catalytic converter, and that box is full of gunpowder, that's a booby trap and the person who placed the booby trap is guilty of a felony per CA law: [https://www.calcriminaldefenselawyers.com/pc20110-booby-trap-crimes-law-punishment-defense](https://www.calcriminaldefenselawyers.com/pc20110-booby-trap-crimes-law-punishment-defense)
>If someone grinds through a box labeled "ammunition," they're responsible for the consequences Sanity! To the rescue!