Woke up to my 2003 toyota tacoma pick up sounding like an airplane was landing next to it. 3 foot gap out of exhaust sawed off last night in front of our house between 11pm-7am.

Goodyear on lincoln already had a 4runner from breeze in the shop for same thing.

Culver CIty Muffler repairing almost identical toyota as mine when I dropped it off.

ANYBODY ELSE?

LAPD pacific said theyre getting lots of calls

Did anyone see anything? like peeps under cars…sawing?

That is the weirdest crime I've ever heard of.

Is there some sort of black market for that?

Wow!

$6,000 an ounce!

I am in the wrong business…

Guess I need one of these…

http://www.catclamp.com/

i live on 5th and Rose and my 4 runner got it's catalytic  converter taken too.

there was a wave of this 2 years ago… so i welded mine on…seems to have worked so far…

the toyotas have just 2 bolts on each side… and the 4wd are lifted providing easy access under the car… they just re sell them back to you at the mechanic….

I live near Penmar Ave and Nowita Place, and this afternoon a neighbor knocked on my door and said 4 or 5 neighbors had their catalytic converter sliced out from under the Toyotas in their driveways last night (they said it was all Tacomas and 4Runners).  I have a 4Runner, but I park around the corner in my driveway which is somewhat hidden which may have saved me.  They said all the thefts happened between 11:30pm (when they got home) and 6:30am (when they discovered it).

I had this happen to me a few months ago in another area of the city, and was shocked to discover from police and my insurance this is very common on Toyotas.  It ended up costing me (or insurance) around $2300 to replace, simply as CC's start at around $1200 for Toyota SUVs.  When my neighbor told me this afternoon she also said she had gotten hers replaced for $350(!) at a place on Lincoln in the 2600 block (I think it was called Shock or Muffler Brothers) which was recc'd by by her regular mechanics at Swedish Car Center.

These are worth more as replacement converters. Once "new" cars are starting their sixth year, the will need to be smog checked by a state licensed smog shop every other year from then on. A number of 6 to 8 year old cars will need replacement converters and they cost a bunch so these "black market" official Toyota converters can be worth a couple of hundred each – much better than car sound systems AND they don't have to break into the car – no alarms!  The reason that the Toyota trucks are so popular is that they are just high enough to climb under without jacking the truck up and there are a bunch on the road so they are an easy market.  Welding can help but a real pro will use a pipe cutter that any muffler shop has – totally quiet, hand-operated tool……..  spin it around the pipe two or three times at each end, let the converter drop into an old coat that muffles the sound and serves as a converter bag and there you go……..