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The local metal scrapyards are far too lenient. They don’t bat an eye at someone bringing in stolen air conditioning condensers (they can even be brand new) Y

The local metal scrapyards are far too lenient. They don’t bat an eye at someone bringing in stolen air conditioning condensers (they can even be brand new) You should have to have the tittle for the car to bring a converter in, since it’s a federal offense to remove them.

kube-system 5y ago
Then how would we expect a legitimate mechanic to replace one?
- emodendroket 5y ago
  Why would the mechanic need to sell it to a scrapyard?
  - throwaway0a5e 5y ago
    So it doesn't clutter up the shop. The same reason they scrap the mountains of other used non-working parts they generate.
  - giarc 5y ago
    I wonder if most shops buy their parts from a distributor who takes them back, most often called a "core charge".
    - emodendroket 5y ago
      Seems like it would be a way to make such regulation work if so.
- bluedino 5y ago
  Then they can show their mechanic's license. There's no reason for Joe off the street to come in with a backpack full of these things. Especially ones that are brand new. Here's 20 stolen from a dealership the other night - https://abc13.com/la-porte-car-dealership-theft-catalytic-converter-converters-value/10821127/ https://abc13.com/la-porte-car-dealership-theft-catalytic-co...
  - Turing_Machine 5y ago
    "Mechanic's license"?
    - JshWright 5y ago
      Many US states require auto repair businesses to be registered, which would be a reasonable thing to tie back to (if this was a reasonable idea in the first place, which it isn't).
    - cartoonworld 5y ago
      I got this. The "Mechanics License" is an informal certification that all reputable technicians in the US employ and is widely recognized. It's a form of de-facto licensure that's easily recognized at a glancing distance, and serves to ensure that a mechanic is not going to leave on a moments notice, without at least bolting a wheel on. Instead, he or she will tell the foreman or whomever's name is on the sign, likely to call a tow truck for Friday. It goes like this: Once a young apprentice lube tech graduates from Harbor F. University, an unusual ritual occurs in most mechanic's shops where a large, diesel, truck with a lift gate and a Square terminal approaches. A nondescript individual emerges from the truck, (slowly, as to not alarm anybody who has a pending tab) where our young acolyte is soon taken gingerly by the hand and ushered onto this mysterious conveyance. Seven or Eight hundred dollars later, the young, oily apprentice emerges holding a shiny, new, silver gun and possibly a ratchet and a t-shirt or pocket protector. Most seasoned veterans will recognize this as their Mechanic's License. It's good for brake jobs, mostly. If you foul up to many times in the shop, they call the MAC or Snap-On guy who will gun it in his diesel and demand full payment for the impact tool and ratchet. They usually get to keep the shirt though, because, yuck, you know?
  - throwaway0a5e 5y ago
    >Then they can show their mechanic's license. Scrapyards already need licenses (permits). Adding licensing requirements will just result in the people with licenses buying from the thiefs. It's just another middleman in the chain. If anything it makes the problem worse because scrapyards often do turn away obvious thieves. A mechanic showing up with ten legit converters and forty stolen ones he bought off the thief gives the scrapyard plausible deniability. Furthermore it moves the illicit transaction outside of a legit commercial establishment and to wherever the thief and the mechanic care to meet. It's already acknowledged that without enforcement against the people who are actually cutting the cats off regulatory requirements just displace the problem and shift the profit around. Being a mechanic doesn't require a license although running the commercial establishment generally has some permitting requirements.
- zrobotics 5y ago
  I used to work at an exhaust shop. We sold catalytic converters to a scrap yard (we also had a separate dumpster for scrap metal that they picked up weekly as well). We needed to show receipts for purchased cats that matched what we scrapped, so if we scrapped 50 we needed to show we had sold at least 50. Although the main reason for that was environmental, it was to prevent shops from removing converters and straight piping the vehicle. However, it also did help to prevent theft, although I don't know if the yard checked thoroughly for non-commercial customers.
throwaway0a5e 5y ago
>You should have to have the tittle for the car to bring a converter in, since it’s a federal offense to remove them. If my eyes could roll in a complete circle they would. Nobody who is parting out cars (resulting in a decent number of legitimately owned cats lying around to scrap) is bringing in the title because cheap junk often changes hands without a title and if not you gave the title to the junkyard in order for them to take the bare shell without you cutting it up. And how is the scrap yard supposed to figure out which cat matches which title? (the other guy covered the mechanic use case so I won't)
- tabletthrowaway 5y ago
  A potentially less bad idea: circulate a list of known stolen catalytic converters by serial number, and encourage scrappers not to buy them/help find who stole them. I think this is done with bikes in a lot of places.
moltar 5y ago
The article describes a ring that doesn’t involve scrap yards. It’s a different kind of hustle where precious metals are extracted from the inside.
olyjohn 5y ago
I don't get it either. I literally had to replace the cat on my car after it started throwing a check engine light. I took the old one to a scrap yard, and the amount of info they asked me for was crazy. They wanted the VIN of the car, all of the car information like make, model, color, etc, then photocopied my ID and kept records of it. This is in Washington, so it may vary by state. You'd think this would be enough, but there's someone who is not asking questions... So many scrap yards are out of business in our area now too, I don't get where people are taking them to. Maybe people are taking them out of state to where people don't ask questions.
dctoedt 5y ago
There used to be a local scrap metal yard in Houston that advertised on TV: "We pay in two-dollar bills!" (Translation: We pay cash, which means you can't be traced.) I haven't seen that ad lately, thought.

kube-system 5y ago

Then how would we expect a legitimate mechanic to replace one?

emodendroket 5y ago
Why would the mechanic need to sell it to a scrapyard?
- throwaway0a5e 5y ago
  So it doesn't clutter up the shop. The same reason they scrap the mountains of other used non-working parts they generate.
- giarc 5y ago
  I wonder if most shops buy their parts from a distributor who takes them back, most often called a "core charge".
  - emodendroket 5y ago
    Seems like it would be a way to make such regulation work if so.
bluedino 5y ago
Then they can show their mechanic's license. There's no reason for Joe off the street to come in with a backpack full of these things. Especially ones that are brand new. Here's 20 stolen from a dealership the other night - https://abc13.com/la-porte-car-dealership-theft-catalytic-converter-converters-value/10821127/ https://abc13.com/la-porte-car-dealership-theft-catalytic-co...
- Turing_Machine 5y ago
  "Mechanic's license"?
  - JshWright 5y ago
    Many US states require auto repair businesses to be registered, which would be a reasonable thing to tie back to (if this was a reasonable idea in the first place, which it isn't).
  - cartoonworld 5y ago
    I got this. The "Mechanics License" is an informal certification that all reputable technicians in the US employ and is widely recognized. It's a form of de-facto licensure that's easily recognized at a glancing distance, and serves to ensure that a mechanic is not going to leave on a moments notice, without at least bolting a wheel on. Instead, he or she will tell the foreman or whomever's name is on the sign, likely to call a tow truck for Friday. It goes like this: Once a young apprentice lube tech graduates from Harbor F. University, an unusual ritual occurs in most mechanic's shops where a large, diesel, truck with a lift gate and a Square terminal approaches. A nondescript individual emerges from the truck, (slowly, as to not alarm anybody who has a pending tab) where our young acolyte is soon taken gingerly by the hand and ushered onto this mysterious conveyance. Seven or Eight hundred dollars later, the young, oily apprentice emerges holding a shiny, new, silver gun and possibly a ratchet and a t-shirt or pocket protector. Most seasoned veterans will recognize this as their Mechanic's License. It's good for brake jobs, mostly. If you foul up to many times in the shop, they call the MAC or Snap-On guy who will gun it in his diesel and demand full payment for the impact tool and ratchet. They usually get to keep the shirt though, because, yuck, you know?
- throwaway0a5e 5y ago
  >Then they can show their mechanic's license. Scrapyards already need licenses (permits). Adding licensing requirements will just result in the people with licenses buying from the thiefs. It's just another middleman in the chain. If anything it makes the problem worse because scrapyards often do turn away obvious thieves. A mechanic showing up with ten legit converters and forty stolen ones he bought off the thief gives the scrapyard plausible deniability. Furthermore it moves the illicit transaction outside of a legit commercial establishment and to wherever the thief and the mechanic care to meet. It's already acknowledged that without enforcement against the people who are actually cutting the cats off regulatory requirements just displace the problem and shift the profit around. Being a mechanic doesn't require a license although running the commercial establishment generally has some permitting requirements.
zrobotics 5y ago
I used to work at an exhaust shop. We sold catalytic converters to a scrap yard (we also had a separate dumpster for scrap metal that they picked up weekly as well). We needed to show receipts for purchased cats that matched what we scrapped, so if we scrapped 50 we needed to show we had sold at least 50. Although the main reason for that was environmental, it was to prevent shops from removing converters and straight piping the vehicle. However, it also did help to prevent theft, although I don't know if the yard checked thoroughly for non-commercial customers.

throwaway0a5e 5y ago

>You should have to have the tittle for the car to bring a converter in, since it’s a federal offense to remove them. If my eyes could roll in a complete circle they would. Nobody who is parting out cars (resulting in a decent number of legitimately owned cats lying around to scrap) is bringing in the title because cheap junk often changes hands without a title and if not you gave the title to the junkyard in order for them to take the bare shell without you cutting it up. And how is the scrap yard supposed to figure out which cat matches which title? (the other guy covered the mechanic use case so I won't)

tabletthrowaway 5y ago
A potentially less bad idea: circulate a list of known stolen catalytic converters by serial number, and encourage scrappers not to buy them/help find who stole them. I think this is done with bikes in a lot of places.

moltar 5y ago

The article describes a ring that doesn’t involve scrap yards. It’s a different kind of hustle where precious metals are extracted from the inside.

olyjohn 5y ago

I don't get it either. I literally had to replace the cat on my car after it started throwing a check engine light. I took the old one to a scrap yard, and the amount of info they asked me for was crazy. They wanted the VIN of the car, all of the car information like make, model, color, etc, then photocopied my ID and kept records of it. This is in Washington, so it may vary by state. You'd think this would be enough, but there's someone who is not asking questions... So many scrap yards are out of business in our area now too, I don't get where people are taking them to. Maybe people are taking them out of state to where people don't ask questions.

dctoedt 5y ago

There used to be a local scrap metal yard in Houston that advertised on TV: "We pay in two-dollar bills!" (Translation: We pay cash, which means you can't be traced.) I haven't seen that ad lately, thought.