Comments by "SmallSpoonBrigade" (@SmallSpoonBrigade) on "New Law to Stop Catalytic Converter Theft" video.

@flakesinyershoe8137 This right here is why the law here in WA was changed along similar lines. Payment by check 3 days after the sale of the gear. ID required and I believe proof of ownership. WIth the shops being required to retain records for a period of time. It's obviously not going to stop the problem completely, but it should make it inconvenient enough that the problem is greatly reduced as scrapyards don't want that problem and the ones that don't mind would likely be found out pretty quickly.
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@elzar760 Perhaps, but most of these scrapyards don't want to take a chance if the books can be audited at any time and then they have to take a gamble on whether or not the prosecutors are going to pick them. Before I changed jobs, I was selling liquor and cigarettes and while I was never there when the state liquor control board was taking a look at things, failing that could have cost us our license, me my job as well as potentially thousands of dollars in fines. Sure, most of the time when it happened, nobody found out, but it was a significant incentive to make a legitimate effort and preventing illegal sales. But, I do know of at least one clerk being busted when a parent caught their kids drunk and found out where they got the goods from.
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@magnetmannenbannanen There's always somebody that's willing to turn a blind eye in order to make a buck. But, records requirements and stings tend to cut down on the problem substantially. The point isn't to get to 0, the point is to get the problem down low enough that it's a minor annoyance.
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Sure it will, the people buying have to have the means to melt them down or sell them to somebody who can. This kind of a measure will likely cut things down a lot as it makes the crime a lot less convenient and a lot less attractive. The scrapyards that aren't following the rules will likely be known by law enforcement before too long and they'd be put out of business. A secondary market for the gear might develop, but melting these down and separating out the metals in them is a lot harder than being able to fence stolen gear and have somebody else do it for you.
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It will do a bunch. The individual components may not, but requiring an ID, issuing payment only as a check and a waiting period would make it massively less convenient. Around here you have to wait several days for the check after making the sale. This gives a bit of time for somebody to check up on the parts if it looks questionable.
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That sounds similar to the law in WA that just went into effect yesterday. ID requirement, payment by check 3 days after the sale and I believe a requirement of proof of ownership of the vehicle. I'm less sure about that last one. I'd expect this to become more common throughout the country as these are expensive items with expensive metals inside.
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@dragons_red And if scrapyards weren't buying from questionable people, it wouldn't be necessary. It's one of those things where a few bad actors ruin everything for everybody else. The problem with the black market here is that you'd have to have the ability to melt down the catalytic converters and separate out the precious metals. Sure, it's definitely possible to do, but it greatly increases the expense and chances of being caught if you have to run your own smelter to do it. The problem is a problem in large part because of the ease of stealing the catalytic converters and selling them for cash.
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Criminals don't need to, the scrapyards do. I'm not sure why that's so hard to understand.
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@solutionsforabrightfuture3579 Except that in this case the typical criminal wouldn't ever be arrested as they wouldn't be able to sell the catalytic converter. They might try once for a misdemeanor, but pretty soon after would give up. They may even not get the misdemeanor, as the scrapyards don't know that it's an illegal seller at that stage. The scrapyards would have additional costs with respect to compliance, but that's about it. It's no different than other businesses that have to pay for the cost of preventing underage drinkers or smokers from buying from them. So, probably a bit better than the war on drugs.
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No, they're just adding new requirements to make it harder to get away with.
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Nope, this is why people think rightwingers are dumb. In order to get paid, you'd have to have a fake ID, a fake bank account and fake paperwork for the converter. Sure, it's possible, but tricking a financial institution into opening the account, then tricking the scrapyard into thinking it's legit is a massive hurdle.
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@niyablake Around here they now have to wait 3 days. The wait period is less important than it being long enough that they have to come back later to get their check. People selling for drugs are probably not going to be coming back for the check.
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@TeamDryRub8463 they were already supposed to not buy stolen property.
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@jaykoerner The point here is to make this so inconvenient that people don't see it as free money under the car. Smuggling this stuff out of the country or sending it to a black market smelter is a massive inconvenience. Sure, it can and probably will happen, but not in the numbers that we're currently seeing. Enforcement is never perfect. But, most scrapyards don't want the hassles associated with having cops coming in and having to explain why the books don't cover all the transactions or where that extra money is coming from.
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@rationalbushcraft Probably, but the skill needed to do that is a lot higher than the skill to chop one of these off the car. Obviously, once it's been melted down and the metals separated, you wouldn't know. But, if the metals aren't separated, a metallurgist would have a pretty decent sense of what it was based on the breakdown of the metals present. Which is something that they'd need to do just to know how much it's worth.
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@jimster1111 Honestly, you are right, but if you wanted to scrap an entire vehicle, you'd probably just sign the title for the whole thing over to a professional scrapper. If for no other reason than how long it takes to take a car apart and shop the pieces around.
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