CrimeAlert: Keep Your Eyes on Your Catalytic Converter!

Hello, all:

I'm emerging after a blogless weekend -- blogless because of the hours and hours I had to spend with police, tow trucks and insurance companies after some crap-ass, drug-sucking felon stole the catalytic converter out of my 2007 Honda Element.

It has been quite an educational weekend, and I'm writing to alert you all to what, apparently, is the hot crime of 2008: catalytic converter theft.

More below:  

I took my eight-year-old daughter to a bowling alley Saturday afternoon for a two-hour birthday party for one of her classmates.

After a couple of hours of bowling, pizza and cake, we returned to the parking lot in broad daylight, secured my mobility scooter to the lift on the back of my car, threw ourselves into the car and strapped in to follow another parent and child for some follow-on coffee and conversation.

When I started my car, it sounded like the world had come to an end -- like my 10-month-old Element had secretly become the biggest combination outboard motor and motorcycle in the entire world. We hauled ourself out of the car, and a walk-around established that my exhaust system was now in jagged, razor-sharp pieces, with both the main pipe and wire harness dangling on the ground.

The rat bastards had destroyed my exhaust system in what probably was less than 3 minutes, stealing parts and doing damage to the tune of $3,800. For a part they sold for, maybe, $300. With my mobility lift down.

Their balls are, apparently, visible from outer space.

When the police finally came to take the theft report, they said it was their six stolen catalytic converter that day. At least a few dozen this month.

When I called the dealership to schedule the repair, the guy in the service department told me it'll take at least 48 hours to get the parts to repair my car. They have to order them directly from the main factory because there are none in stock in Dallas/Fort Worth. Because there've been so many thefts.

Turns out, since the price of platinum topped $2,000 an ounce a few months ago, the theft of catalytic converters  has skyrocketed. If you have an SUV, it's easy for the thieves to throw themselves under your vehicle, make a few quick cuts with a rotary power saw and make off with a few hundred dollars of scrap metal to them.

It's a minimum $2,000 repair to you, according to the cops -- and much more if, as in my case, inexperienced thieves manage to damage your wiring or cut through more than just your exhaust.

I'm writing to pass on their advice here: If you have a garage, use it. Never leave your car outside.

If you park in your driveway, back into the driveway, and take your car as far into the driveway -- and close to your home -- as you can.

Don't think that you're safe in a public parking lot. If you can, park where your car is clearly visible through the door of the place you're visiting. And try and limit your public parking to places that have surveillence cameras.

It sounds like a lot of hassle, I know -- but as I sit here, 48 hours into what looks like a 7- to 8-day stint without my car and, consequently, without my mobility scooter, I wish I had known about this a long time ago. I might not have been as sanguine about parking in that seedy bowling-alley parking lot, even in broad daylight.

Forewarned is forearmed, people.

This sucks. Hard.

Don't let it happen to you.