- Catalytic converters. - Catalytic converter.
- Catalytic converter theft.
- Catalytic converter theft is an issue
that has gotten outta hand in the past few years
and this year it hasn't gotten any better.
- In 2021 they estimated there were 65,398
thefts nationwide.
A 353% increase from all reported thefts
of catalytic converters
in 2020. - That's ridiculous
So what can you do to stop it?
- Well, these products are especially designed
to prevent your catalytic converter from being stolen.
But some of 'em are gonna run you a couple hundred bucks.
Are these things worth the added protection
or can a determined thief get around them anyway?
Today we're gonna find out.
I'm Zach, this is Justin, welcome to Donut.
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- All right, so what we have here is our director,
Henry's suburban who's had his whole vehicle stolen
and then found it cat-less somewhere else in the city.
- I was about $3,000 in the hole that week.
- Which is why we're here to talk about protection methods
to protect your cat, to protect your hard-earned money.
- [Justin] Last year, we made a video about why thieves
take this precious piece off of your car.
It's because inside of these catalytic converters
there are precious metals like rhodium,
platinum and palladium.
Thieves can sell them at a junkyard or recycling center
to make some quick cash.
- Now, thieves have been known to steal a cat
off someone's car in as little as 90 seconds.
Justin and I have some jacks and a sawzall,
and we're gonna see if we've got the chops to do the chop.
We're gonna establish a baseline.
We'll see how long it takes us to get the car up
and to saw out the cat on this car with no protection.
- Rock, paper, scissors, shoot (bleep).
- [Henry] You're going under.
- And that's how it happens.
- [Henry] Are we ready?
- Yes! - Ready!
- Three, two, one, steal!
(dramatic music)
- Now, when a thief does this often
they do it pretty unsafely.
You've probably heard stories
about cat thieves getting squished under cars.
You really don't want that to happen.
So we're gonna do it safely.
Okay, drop it.
sawzall me.
Oh God.
This is our first time.
Coast is clear, coast is clear.
Now it's also worth remembering
that thieves are targeting cars
that they don't have to jack up to get under.
Taller cars, such as SUVs
that they can just slide right under,
and then it only takes 'em
as long as it takes to cut the cat out.
- [Justin] Get out!
- You've got to take the jack stand with you.
- Time!
Wow, just like the bad guys, a minute and 28 seconds.
(Zach cheering)
That's 90 seconds boys.
Wait, but that's a resonator.
- Yeah, so the thing about the Sebring is
that the catalytic converter is like up kind of
under the hood and not in a great stealing location,
but it's the only car that we had that we don't care about.
So we're gonna pretend like this resonator
is a catalytic converter for the rest of the day, okay?
So we're gonna be grading this on speed, ease,
cost, and stealthiness.
That spells S.E.C.S..
All right, so speed:
how quickly can a thief get past this thing?
That's why we set a baseline, as we test these products
we'll see how much time they add
to the cat removal process.
Ease: how easy is it to install?
Cost: how much does the thing cost?
And stealthiness: how loud is the thief gonna have to be
to remove this thing from your car?
Alright, Justin, what the heck's the first thing we got?
What is this?
- [Justin] We have a alarm system here by-
- [Zach] Fast Guard
- Fast Guard Alarms.
This is $30, and it had this little alarm doohickey
that you activate when you're done driving your car.
And you have to make sure you turn it off
with your little key fob here.
- That's the big issue for me is the key fob.
I would never remember.
I'd lose that thing day one.
- But, what's the first thing people do
when an alarm goes off?
- Nothing.
- Exactly, they ignore it.
Let's see how long it takes before someone comes
and checks out what all the noise is about.
- I have a feeling nobody's gonna check on us.
- No.
The installation of this thing does not require it
to be near the cat.
It actually just needs to be somewhere on the exhaust
to feel the vibration of someone trying to cut it off.
So I say that's good enough.
- Let's activate this thing
(alarm beeps)
- Here we go. - Okay, so now we're set.
- [Henry] Yeah.
Three, two, one.
(saw buzzes) (alarm beeping)
(mischievous music)
- Oh.
It stopped.
- [Henry] That was only 30 seconds so...
- Yeah, That's not even enough time to wake up.
Oh, look, we got one.
And he waited until it cut off to come check.
- I mean, it sounded like someone's '90s BMX bike
was getting stolen
- And it only rang for 30 seconds.
That's less time than it took to cut the cat off.
- It's true.
So the problem with this thing is that it's not
super securely attached to the exhaust.
So if you're a thief and you're under here
starts doing that, it's not gonna slow us down.
See if you can get this thing off of the sawzall.
(saw whirring)
You (alarm buzzes) Literally had one job, Fast Guard.
(alarm beeping)
(dings) (buzzes)
Fail.
All right, Justin, let's talk about S.E.C.S..
First off speed,
it only took me about 10 or 15 seconds to just cut it off
the car, took you 15 seconds to destroy it.
- [Justin] And no one likes a minute man
- Onto ease of install.
- Definitely easy to install.
- It was easy, it was quick.
How much did it cost?
- [Henry] $35.
- So onto the C, it was $35.
- 35 bucks. - That was pretty cheap.
- [Justin] Really cheap.
- And stealthiness, I mean, it was pretty loud,
but I don't know if it's loud enough
to really get anybody's attention.
As a theft prevention product I don't think it's that good.
But we did get three triple A batteries out of the deal.
- Sick!
- Let's check out our next product,
see if it does any better.
Okay, up next we've got the Catclamp.
This thing costs 200 bucks.
Justin, how's this thing work?
- This rope here feeds through those clamps
and gives you like a flexible cage around
your kettle and converter.
- Yeah, cutting through this loose cable,
especially with the sawzall is gonna be tricky.
Let's install it.
All right, so it doesn't look great.
- What are you talking about?
- I think unfortunately we gotta undo and redo.
(wire threading)
Okay, that should be a clamped cat.
- Resonator.
- Our clamps are tight,
our cables are cinched down by the clamps,
to get this thing out,
you'd have to be able to cut inside of the clamps
and then fish it out between the cables,
which looks next to impossible.
You can totally cut here and here,
but then the cat itself is attached to the car.
- By anchoring it multiple times
to the chassis of the vehicle,
you not only have to cut the pipe,
but you have to cut every single one of these lines,
which is very inconvenient if someone's
trying to steal it. - Yeah that sucks.
- I guess we have to do that. - Yeah.
- [Justin] Let's see what happens
- [Henry] And go!
(saw buzzes)
(Zach chuckles)
- [Zach] Try like closer to the holes
or like where it's tight, man.
It's flapping so hard.
- My blade's taking quite a beating.
- [Zach] Dude I don't think that's the right tool
for the job.
- All right gimme the cutter.
(Justin grunts)
(saw whirring)
- Yeah!
- Oh God, there's so many.
(Zach cheers)
- Where else?
Where else? - Looks like
a couple more in the back.
And yeah, keep an eye on that gas tank.
Time!
- [Henry] So that was a total of two minutes.
- [Justin] Oh no! - Two minutes?
And that's just an additional two minutes.
We haven't even taken the cat off yet.
- And that's on a lift and plenty of light.
- Yeah.
- So imagine doing this in the dark, trying to be sneaky.
That's impossible.
So how does this product hold up to S.E.C.S.?
- S.E.C.S. me up, Justin.
- All Right, so speed, absolute horrible.
This took forever.
- [Zach] Yeah, doubled our time
- [Justin] Definitely helps you in that way.
- Yeah, slows down a thief,
which is akin to stopping a thief.
- Ease of install.
We had a bit of trouble at first.
(sad music) (indistinct chatter)
- Have a bit of trouble at first
with almost everything I do.
- Exactly.
- It took us really 30 minutes.
So not too bad.
- Five stars.
On cost, this costs a lot.
- [Zach] But the clamps are pretty cool and it does make
for a pretty good kit.
So it is 200 bucks, but it could save you
upwards of a thousand.
- And then as far as stealth,
they're definitely not gonna be sneaky cutting this off.
So, I recommend this product.
That that's pretty good.
- [Zach] Yeah, I think it would stop a thief.
- [Justin] For sure, for sure.
- That's what we're here to test.
Okay, well, where can we go from here?
This seems like what I would expect to be kind of top tier.
So let's take a look at that other thing we got.
All right, so for our last product we've got
what's called a Catstrap.
It is a strap that you put on your cat,
and it prevents it from being stolen.
But inside of this fiberglass strapping is some cable.
And the idea is that it stops a sawzall
from basically working.
It just is a little bit jiggly.
So the sawzall just moves with it
and takes a thief longer to cut.
So we'll install these things
and see how much they deter us.
Yeah, I'm gonna go ahead and mask up now.
I know you can't see it, but this is letting off
all sorts of tiny little particles of fiberglass.
They're all over me.
All right, so this is kind of interesting.
First off, bright orange,
so thieves know to get the hell away.
And then on the back side, it's got this black material
it says with heat, once this is installed
it'll bond to your exhaust.
Which is kind of funny because when you look at it,
it's obvious that this is just duct tape.
By bonding to your exhaust
it means it's just gonna melt to it when it gets hot.
It even says in the instructions
that a melting smell is normal during the bonding period,
which is hilarious.
But I mean, not wrong, it's gonna bond to your exhaust.
So let's bond her up.
(rock music)
- I don't know, it just kind of looks dumb.
- Yeah, oh, I hate this.
- Let's try and cut this bad boy off!
- [Henry] And, go!
(saw whirring)
- Oh yeah, I forgot, I don't have to actually cut it out,
we already got that time.
(saw whirring)
You know what?
I got a better idea.
Better idea is not that much better.
Okay, with that out the way, and there we are,
cutting the cat.
- [Henry] That was an extra minute and 15 seconds.
- Pretty easy to defeat.
Didn't even have to switch out for the cutoff wheel,
managed to just sawzall right through them cables.
- So how does it hold up the S.E.C.S.?
- Well, let's talk about it, Justin.
First off speed.
It didn't take me as long as the catclamp
but it was an additional minute 15.
So I'm gonna say not bad.
That's that's a pass for me.
In terms of ease, install was way easier than the catclamp,
but to its detriment, I think.
Then, we've got cost.
The Catstrap by itself is 200 bucks.
- [Justin] Pretty high.
- That is pretty high,
especially when you consider that the cat clamp was $200
and I would say unarguably did a better job.
And then lastly, stealthiness.
Tough to be stealthy cutting through much of anything,
so I think it does pass
in terms of making it un-stealthy for a thief.
All right, before we look at our last catalytic converter
theft prevention device, I wanna show you something
and that's our sick new
Donut Media license plate frame.
You can get yourself one at donutmedia.com
and you should cause they're sweet.
And if you want to keep up to date
on our merch stuff then follow our merch account,
our Donut Merch Van on Instagram
@DonutMerchVan, go follow it.
Get a plate frame, I love you.
All right, now let's talk about
one of the most effective ways to protect your cat.
A plate of metal.
Basically there's a company called cat shield
that makes basically skid plates to go over your cat
to protect them from thieves.
They make 'em for a handful of cars,
but if they don't make one for your car,
you might have to DIY it.
But that's okay, sometimes that's the best way to do things.
- On his new cat, our director Henry
welded rebar to the catalytic converters and the frame.
He also engraved his VIN number and the word stolen
50 times on each cat.
So I mean, yeah, someone's not gonna want to deal with that.
- And this has seemed to work,
it's been about eight months
and no one's stolen the cats from me.
- [Justin] So a rebar cage is definitely
one of the safest way to do it
because something as simple
as a sawzall or a cutoff wheel,
won't cut through rebar as easily.
- So we're not gonna make a whole cat protector
for the Sebring, but just to see how long it would take
a thief to get through one,
we're gonna cut a cat size hole
just to make sure metal's still tough to cut through.
Henry's gonna time it and we'll see how long it takes.
- Are you ready, Jobe?
- Yeah.
- [Justin] Are you ready Kitty?
(Zach meows)
- Three, two, one.
(saw whirring) (country music)
- Do I have to cut four sides?
- [Henry] We can stop.
We can just double the amount of time that that took.
- Swell.
Well, what do you know?
That took forever and it was loud as hell,
three minutes 45 seconds to be exact.
And I only got halfway there.
So call it seven and a half minutes.
I don't think any thief's gonna do that.
So if you really wanna protect your cat,
I think something like a shield
is what the doctor ordered.
That said, I mean the cat clamp
is my other favorite for a product
you can buy off shelf.
- A good steel skid plate, a rebar cage
or the cat clamp, surprisingly.
- Yeah, the nice thing about the cat clamp is that it is
pretty much reversible, right?
If you do a shield like this,
especially if you weld it in place...
- Yeah. - Well, that's it.
Then you gotta cut it out next time you need to get in.
- Then that's your problem later.
- Yeah.
- And if you're out there stealing cats, stop it!
Stop it!
- Please stop.
Please stop.
♪ In the Arms of an Angel ♪
- Stop.
- But hopefully your catalytic converter is intact
and hopefully it'll stay that way
with what you learned in this video.
If you've gotten your catalytic converter stolen before
tell us the story in the comments,
and let us know what else you wanna see us test.
Thanks for watching.
Follow me on Instagram @ZachJobe.
Follow Justin @JustinFreeman.
Make sure you follow Donut @DonutMedia.
We'll see you guys, later.
- You all have a good one.