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Someone tried to steal the DPF and Catalytic converter from my 2008 F250 6.4 while we were at a hotel overnight in Huntington WV. We were traveling from PA to St Louis MO and stopped at a Fairfield Inn & Suites around 1:45am. When I came out at 9am to retrieve the cooler I saw parts and a strap hanging down from the undercarriage. My initial thoughts were that I hit something on the highway. A closer inspection revealed two cuts and several parts removed. The would be thieves must of been interrupted and didn’t get their prize. The strap and bent exhaust indicates the thieves tied the exhaust to another vehicle and tried to forcibly remove it from my truck.
the locals all suggested this was NOT uncommon due to the high drug addiction in the area. Scrap value on these pieces are about $125 (US). The larger diesel equipment and higher ground clearance of a truck make it a prime target.
No service centers open (Saturday on holiday weekend) and no rental cars for 200 miles. I secured as much of the parts as I could and picked up some replacement bolts for the skid plate at a auto parts store. 400 miles later I found a welder in a rural farming community (Mount Vernon IL) willing to come back in and patch me up for $100 cash. On a side note: with no back pressure the emissions system would NOT enter regen. It immediately went into regen once the exhaust was patched.
We are home now. Insurance will cover the damage. Insurance adjuster estimated at $3000. Dealer came back with $4600. Including the $100 patch, my portion will be $500.
How do you pull **** like that off, using mechanical means to cut metal in the middle of the night in a motel? In the US, no less, where you could easily get shot trying to steal. Blows my mind...
If I had caught them, I would have been detained myself for my actions.
That said, in many areas of the US where the economy has not recovered or taken a down turn, methamphetamines and other drugs have moved in. That area of WV has seen the coal industry decline and with no other industrial or commercial economic base to fall back on, it is easy for drugs and criminal activity to establish.
Meth is addictive and overwhelms it’s users. They don’t think rationally and will stop at nothing trying to get their “fix”.
Someone tried to steal the DPF and Catalytic converter from my 2008 F250 6.4 while we were at a hotel overnight in Huntington WV. We were traveling from PA to St Louis MO and stopped at a Fairfield Inn & Suites around 1:45am. When I came out at 9am to retrieve the cooler I saw parts and a strap hanging down from the undercarriage. My initial thoughts were that I hit something on the highway. A closer inspection revealed two cuts and several parts removed. The would be thieves must of been interrupted and didn’t get their prize. The strap and bent exhaust indicates the thieves tied the exhaust to another vehicle and tried to forcibly remove it from my truck.
the locals all suggested this was NOT uncommon due to the high drug addiction in the area. Scrap value on these pieces are about $125 (US). The larger diesel equipment and higher ground clearance of a truck make it a prime target.
No service centers open (Saturday on holiday weekend) and no rental cars for 200 miles. I secured as much of the parts as I could and picked up some replacement bolts for the skid plate at a auto parts store. 400 miles later I found a welder in a rural farming community (Mount Vernon IL) willing to come back in and patch me up for $100 cash. On a side note: with no back pressure the emissions system would NOT enter regen. It immediately went into regen once the exhaust was patched.
We are home now. Insurance will cover the damage. Insurance adjuster estimated at $3000. Dealer came back with $4600. Including the $100 patch, my portion will be $500.
Sometime ago I watched a security video showing thieves stealing catalytic converters from vehicles in a parking lot.
Was amazed at how fast they removed the converter...less than two minutes getting out of their pickup, cutting the converter off , getting back in their vehicle. They went down the row to the next vehicle. Obviously not their first foray.
My friend had CAT stolen from Toyota SUV at BART (metro in CA) station few years ago . Parking is metered and has security patrol, but single officer patrols 2 stations.
That and copper stealing become big problem as thieves did not hesitate to steal wire from street lights, so in CA the recyclers are obligated to take pictures of the seller and such materials have wait period for the cash.
Seem that law stopped, or at least slowed the problem in the state.
My friend had CAT stolen from Toyota SUV at BART (metro in CA) station few years ago . Parking is metered and has security patrol, but single officer patrols 2 stations.
That and copper stealing become big problem as thieves did not hesitate to steal wire from street lights, so in CA the recyclers are obligated to take pictures of the seller and such materials have wait period for the cash.
Seem that law stopped, or at least slowed the problem in the state.
That seems like a good idea, my wife and I questioned how scrap yards couldn’t questions the same seemingly scruffy people showing up periodically with exhaust components cut from vehicles.
In Ohio when delivering scrap to a recycler, the recycler is required to keep detailed data on the transaction, including the scrappers photo and drivers license.
The Dayton Police Dept. has two detectives fully assigned to monitor city recycling yards. And they are busy.
In regards to the copper thefts. We're an HVAC outfit serving the commercial/industrial sector up here in Montreal.
Got a call from the owner of a mini-mall a couple years back. He'd received complaints from almost all of his tenants (6-7) that their a/c wasn't working. You guessed it. The ba$tard$ had climbed on to the roof in the dead of night and literally stripped the rooftop package units of their condenser and evaporator coils as well as whatever copper lines they could reach.
