Three members of a California family pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy for their role in a ring that shipped $600 million worth of stolen catalytic converters from California to New Jersey, federal prosecutors said.
Brothers Tou Sue Vang, 32, and Andrew Vang, 28, along with their mother, Monica Moua, 58, were part of “a national network of thieves, dealers, and processors” who provided the stolen auto anti-smog devices to a metal refinery for more than $600 million, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office.
Twenty-one people from California and New Jersey have been charged in the case, prosecutors said. The three Sacramento family members pleaded guilty to conspiring to transport the devices in return for more than $38 million.
It’s not even that much money, compared to what it costs to get your catalytic converter replaced afterwards. The average scrap value is something like $85 each. It’ll cost you hundreds or possibly into the thousands depending on your car to have a shop replace your converter, because most people are not equipped to this themselves.
Fortunately I live in a state where you can get away with straight piping. So it’s mostly the environment that gets fucked!
I’m not sure I’d call that fortunate.
On that note, a guy I know brought me his bakery van which thieves had cut the catalytic converter out of. He wanted me to straight pipe it to get it through inspection, until he could get the replacement cat. I went under there and… wait a minute, the missing section is after the downstream O2 sensor? Yeah, it turns out these bozos stole the resonator chamber out of his exhaust. I chased the pipe the rest of the way and found the actual converter under the hood.
Morons.
So I did straight pipe that son of a bitch, and according to him the loss of the resonator didn’t make it perform or sound any different. I’d doubt the manufacturer just put it there for the hell of it, but, you never know.
Where I’m from ‘straight piping’ means something entirely different