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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

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.
- dragontamer 5y ago
  > Adding licensing requirements will just result in the people with licenses buying from the thiefs. Lets think about this situation in programming terms. "Fixing this exploit will just result in the people finding another bug to exploit". Well... yeah. That's the point. You don't necessarily want to stop all crimes (I mean, you do, but that's just unreasonable). Everyone is happy with simple deterrence: making crime harder to do and harder to logically manage. And you keep fixing the law until the criminals / unwanted behavior is finally fixed. You gotta start somewhere, much like you gotta start fixing code exploits if you want to fix the security in your software.
  - beerandt 5y ago
    This is the thinking that got us: 1) the mess that is DRM, whether for software or media, and 2) to the point of 10-step windows activation (including phone calls and having to reinstall because one version only takes retail keys and another only takes oem keys and another only uses network auth), and 3) video games that try and re-authenticate between every frame of play And tons of other "fixes" that just punish users and don't really deter bad behavior. Software is bad enough; we shouldn't need to authenticate our exhaust system before recycling it.

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.

dragontamer 5y ago
> Adding licensing requirements will just result in the people with licenses buying from the thiefs. Lets think about this situation in programming terms. "Fixing this exploit will just result in the people finding another bug to exploit". Well... yeah. That's the point. You don't necessarily want to stop all crimes (I mean, you do, but that's just unreasonable). Everyone is happy with simple deterrence: making crime harder to do and harder to logically manage. And you keep fixing the law until the criminals / unwanted behavior is finally fixed. You gotta start somewhere, much like you gotta start fixing code exploits if you want to fix the security in your software.
- beerandt 5y ago
  This is the thinking that got us: 1) the mess that is DRM, whether for software or media, and 2) to the point of 10-step windows activation (including phone calls and having to reinstall because one version only takes retail keys and another only takes oem keys and another only uses network auth), and 3) video games that try and re-authenticate between every frame of play And tons of other "fixes" that just punish users and don't really deter bad behavior. Software is bad enough; we shouldn't need to authenticate our exhaust system before recycling it.