[embersdev]

They make security devices which is essentially a collar on each side with steel cables between. Makes it virtually impossible to cut it off. It instead requires you to first take off the device then cut off the cat. This problem of cat thefts have been a problem in the us for a long time.

[close04]

I have a friend in London who was hit with this 3 times in the past few years. He has a security camera overlooking the car but no garage option. First time they stole the unprotected cat it took under 4 minutes. Second time he had the steel cable mesh with collars and clamps protecting it and they stole it in under 7 minutes. Third time he had some sort of fancy protective system with alarm, steel cables, kevlar straps, clearly labeled so the thieves would know. They recognized this to be not worth the trouble so they vandalized the cat instead. The value of the vandalized cat was basically enough to break even with the cost of the fancy protection.

[bostik]

> This problem of cat thefts have been a problem in the us for a long time.

Indeed. I don't know what materials the current generations use, but 20 years ago, at least, the catalytic mesh was platinum.

Unsurprisingly, converter thefts were common enough. (This was back in Finland, fwiw.)

[saagarjha]

Usually it’s platinum, palladium, and rhodium along with some other, cheaper metals.