So I guess parking at a semi-busy, semi-guard MARTA parking lot doesn’t do any good. According to the MARTA police that showed up, They hadn’t seen this yet and 2 other cars by that time where discovered to have been vandalized also. My Element was at Inman Park station, The other two cars where at the Candler Park station. One was another Honda Element and a Toyota Tacoma and all of them had been cut w/ a red bladed reciprocating saw. Kinda surprised me the MARTA police did more CSI work than the APD for the other two catalytic converters that where stolen.

Thing that sucks about this, and after doing more googling, No one really care’s to stop it other than the people who own the cars getting jacked. Cops/Legislators/Justice system see this as petty crime. Even if they do get lucky to catch the a-holes, Odds are they will be back out on the street in a few months anyways. Salvage business get converters for cheap and make easy money. Auto manufactures don’t care since they can make more money selling replacement parts. Repair shops don’t want to help you protect them since they make more money w/ you coming back every few months. I talked to the guy who replaced my catalytic converter the 2nd time and asked if there where ways to protect it… He just gave me a blank stare and said no, Not really possible. Turns out there are commercially available options who anyone in his type of business should of known about. Tempted to not take it back to him a 3rd time… But trying to drive my car out to the dealership 30 miles away doesn’t sound like fun either.

I guess other than car owners, Maybe the insurance people care since it costs them money. But seeing as how this has been an ongoing issue for decades now, I am guessing it is not that high on their lobbyist’s list or there are more powerful lobbyist trying to stop them /cough Auto Manufactures /cough. Yeah, I know… Tin Foil Hat time.

Even shopped around for a new car, Thing that sucks is I really don’t like them and the ones I do, I don’t really want to make that big of a car payment. Thinking about getting a moped and then focusing on getting my motorcycle licensee and then a big boy bike.

But for the time being, Got a CatClamp and going to have my VIN number etched into the converter. CatClamp will hopefully make it seem not worth trying to steal. The VIN number will hopefully mean they get caught when they try to salvage it. Otherwise I am going to quit my day job and become a fulltime vigilante.

PS – And the day after this happened I found out my cat has diabetes. On the upside I am having to deal directly w/ my fear of needles.