Les Miserable: Thieves stealing parts from parked cars

It’s no longer enough to hide your valuables before leaving your car at the park and ride. And your LoJack may not be of much use either.

If you “park and ride” along SEPTA Regional Rail lines, it could be a much more expensive trip than you expected.

An exclusive CBS 3 I-Team investigation reveals that since March 12th, riders have had catalytic converters, a pollution control device, stolen from beneath their vehicles.

They’re apparently stealing the converters and then selling off the metals inside, for a couple hundred buck a pop. Car owners end up having to spend a grand or more to replace the stolen converters.

Victor Davis Hanson wrote about the phenomenon of casual theft he has seen on the West Coast, and now here’s evidence of an urban version happening on the East Coast.

We are left with a paradox. The taxpayer cannot indefinitely fund the emergency room treatment for the shooter and his victim on Saturday night if society cannot put a tool down for five minutes without a likely theft, or a farmer cannot turn on a 50-year old pump without expecting its electrical connections to have been ripped out. Civilization simply cannot function that way for either the productive citizen or the parasite, who still needs a live host.

(thanks to Steve)