I own a 2006 Toyota Camry that had its catalytic converter stolen. I live in the Bay Area of California, in a relatively safe, suburban neighborhood across the street from a church. I'm renting an in-law unit and my landlord has no onsite parking for me (they own 3 cars and their garage only fits one car so their other 2 cars also park on the street). I move and drive my car every couple of days and park it in different spots around my neighborhood. Even though my landlord has a Toyota RAV4 and even though he has not moved his car in over two months, I just happen to park behind his car a few days ago and somehow my 2006 Toyota Camry had its catalytic converter stolen, but his car is perfectly fine.

Questions about replacement: It's covered by insurance, but every shop I called said, "Really? They stole from a Camry? Your catalytic converter is worthless. The thieves were dumb. I'm so surprised somebody stole from a Camry." The shop I decided to go with said there's no Toyota brand catalytic converter for Camrys unless I wait 3-4 months. Because they've never, ever heard of thieves targeting a Camry, they said they didn't think they could even find a Toyota branded one to replace it. They said they have to use an off-market or secondary market brand. Is this safe for my car? Or should I wait for the Toyota one?

Questions about preventative measures: I'm trying to figure out to prevent future thefts and have read about protective covers, but yet again, the shop told me they've never heard of catalytic covers being stolen from Toyota Camrys so they don't even think there are covers that fit Toyota Camrys. They said if I wanted one, I would have to do my own research and buy it myself. They've seen covers for Priuses, but not Camrys. I am at a loss on what to do? Do I take extra precautions by trying to find a cover? Should I pay extra money for an alarm system? (My car has an alarm, but it sounds like there's a special alarm for below the car?) Or do I hope the thieves were stupid and nobody will ever touch my worthless 2006 Toyota Camry's catalytic converter ever again, so I shouldn't bother with paying extra money for precautions? My Camry is in great shape. I bought it brand new back in 2006 and it has 125,000 miles on it. I plan on keeping it forever until it breaks down.

Questions about the thieves and what they intend to do with my catalytic converter: I feel like the unluckiest person in the world. Why my car when there was an SUV parked right in front of me? I do not know much about cars, but can someone please explain what they would have done with the catalytic converter from a 2006 Toyota Camry. What is it they are looking to do with it? What materials or metals are contained in there? Do they break it town? Or would they sell it in one piece to be used in another 2006 Toyota Camry?

 

Questions about replacement:
If the car was built to California emissions standards and registered in California then the replacement converter is supposed to be California Air Resources Board (CARB) certified. The means not any converter can be used. The Toyota brand converter would be legal to use plus there are aftermarket units that are listed as CARB certified.

Where did you take the car for repair? If a Toyota dealer they will only use Toyota parts. If a muffler shop, they should be able to find an aftermarket CARB certified system. The aftermarket converters are even sold online to DIY’er’s. An aftermarket part would be much cheaper than the Toyota part but may not last as long.

If your insurance will pay for a Toyota brand part then get this if you can wait for it as it’s the best part. You can call or visit a Toyota dealer’s part department, give them you cars VIN and they can tell you the order time and price. The price might be steep at $1600. An aftermarket part may be $400-500. The issue is the aftermarket part may not last as long. Both Toyota and aftermarket parts would be safe to use.

Who knows why your converter was stolen. It might have had easier access. Thieves use a jack to lift the car then a battery powered saw to cut off the converter. Total time from start to finish is in minutes. Would assume thieves know their cars as in which ones to steal from plus look for targets of opportunity.

Questions about preventative measures:
There are devices sold that claim to be able to prevent or at least slow down the theft process. An issue is if the thief has a saw they can just saw off the device along with the converter.

You might ask at the Toyotanation.com website in the appropriate Camry section. The site has more members and thus resources.

An alarm may or may not work. One issue being is if the alarm goes off who will respond? With the proliferation of car alarms going off they are now ignored. There are alarms that have tilt detectors which will trigger if the car is jacked up on one side. These alarms can have a wireless feature that will trigger ones cell phone to notify the owner. The owner can then take action to attempt to persuade the thieves to move on. Note some thieves carry guns now and have shot and killed police thus if going this route be careful. Doubt very much if police were called they would arrive in time to catch the thieves assuming they responded at all.

My opinion is if the thieves know they have been caught in the act they might leave ASAP and this would require some live interaction with a person. Here perhaps turning on a light, shouting at the thieves, blasting an air horn at them might work. Thieves can be very brazen these days and very dangerous to deal with.

An internet search will find sites with suggestions about how to part a car, lighting, etc. that may reduce the chances of having a converter theft.

Questions about the thieves and what they intend to do with my catalytic converter:
You are not unlucky so suggest you think more positive. Thieves will be thieves. Car jacking’s are up and car owners have been shot just for being too slow to get out of their car. There have been lots of cases of thieves say stealing literally $5 with copper electrical wiring resulting in $1K worth of repairs to the equipment it was stolen from.

Converters can be sold to unscrupulous scrap dealers. California now requires some form of ID from any converter sellers to be retained by the scrap dealer. The converters can be moved out of state, consolidated in mass quantities to be put into a shipping container for overseas shipping to countries that have lax laws to be recycled. The converter contains precious metals which are worth money. Suppose an unscrupulous muffler shop could be buying them and reinstalling them on cars but this would take more effort. Would suppose the idea is quick cash by thieves and moving product out fast by the buyers.

Converter theft is now rampant.

 

See reply above.

 

Thank you, Joey. I did see your post before posting under "Catalytic converter theft."

Regarding protection and distraction: Regarding alarms, I unfortunately only have street parking only where I live. And the way my unit is situated, I am in the back, behind a main house, so I can't even see the street from where I live and I am far from the street. Even if I put an alarm on my car, I probably wouldn't be able to hear it from where I am. Or if I heard it, I can't look out a window and see if it's my car; I would have to walk out and around a driveway to take a look at the street so see if it's my car or not. If it's nighttime and I'm asleep, I would definitely sleep through it.
You also suggested making thieves look elsewhere. I live in a suburban neighborhood with several other cars parked on the street nearby, even a Priuses. My landlord has an Toyota Rav4 SUV that he hasn't moved in over a month; it is sitting in the same exact spot and it sits higher off the ground than my car. I just happened to park behind his car last week. You would think that his car would have been an easier target since my car is lower to the ground.

I know you said Toyota Camrys are in the to 10 thefts depending on the state, but the auto shop guy kept saying how "surprised" and "shocked" he is that someone stole from a Toyota Camry. He said he's never heard of that. A part of my post is trying to make sense of why this happened to me because I had to jump through a lot of hoops setting up my appointment, even though everything is 100% covered by insurance (a cancelled tow truck appointment, a tow truck coming right in the middle of a Zoom meeting, etc.). I'm just curious what the thieves would have done with a catalytic converter from a 2006 Toyota Camry. I'm told thieves break it down for precious metals, but the auto shop guy said the more expensive catalytic converter is under my hood and the catalytic converter under my car is worthless. How much money would they have made from MY catalytic converter?

Secondly, yes I live in California and everything is covered by insurance so paying for a more expensive state approved converter is not an issue. What I'm worried about is whether a non-Toyota brand is just as good. The shop called around and there are no specific 2006 Toyota Camry catalytic converters available and special ordering it would take 3-4 months. They said the only solution is to use an "off market" or "secondary market" catalytic converter. I haven't found information on whether this is safe to use in my car. This might be an ignorant question, but since I'm covered by insurance, I was OK with paying more for the brand-specific catalytic converter, but don't think I can wait that long for one.

 

Thanks for your help! This theft caused a lot of anguish for me so I think this was my way of trying to find answers in order to move on. Maybe I won't get the answers and need to learn to move on without them, but I would like to try.

 

Regarding protection and distraction:

There are car alarms having a remote alert unit that can be kept near you. One can go an extra step and have an alarm with a panic button that when pressed sets off a LOUD alarm on the car. The idea is to startle the thieve and have them move off.

Car thieves look for specific cars and targets of opportunity. If they couldn't see the car from the street they MUST have known it was there before hand. Perhaps the thief walked around the block scoping things out, lived in the area, know or are a neighbor or work for a company having an employees that enter the area where your car is.

If the converter had no precious metal value perhaps the thieve had a 2006 Toyota Camry customer lined up for a quick cash sale. There is a market for used converters no questions asked. California is perfect place to sell it as they require more expensive and apparently harder to find CARB approved converters. Maybe another car owner or auto shop could not wait months for a replacement converter and sought out and found an illegal source for one.

The car's hood has a lock. The car would need to be entered to unlock the hood. The under the hood converter is bolted to the engine and would take time to unbolt. Thieves don’t want to spend time stealing. Video's show a thieve can steal an under the chassis converter in under 2 minutes. Removing the under hood converter would take a lot longer. Most alarm systems are wiring to go off if the hood is opened. The thief may have only been interested in the under the car converter.

All aftermarket converters are safe. If the aftermarket converter was CARB approved the state examined it for compliance with state regulations. The issue is the aftermarket converter may not last as long. In some cases Toyota requires buying the complete tail pipe which may cost more than just a converter.

If you get a new converter. Ask your mechanic to itch your cars VIN onto the converter body in font large enough and on an area where it can be seen when under the car. This might discourage a thief if reselling it to be reused and will identify to police as stolen.