Jerseygirl

Following on from the original thread…

WTF in America

Pulaski

Man dies after falling from cliff while filming TikTok video.

This occured in Puerto Rico, apparently because there aren't any 70ft cliffs in Florida.

Steerpike

Where's live streaming when you need it?

Steerpike

Another Puerto Rico WTF, also related to the latest obsession with filming everything:

Three American tourists stabbed after being told to stop filming in popular Puerto Rico neighbourhood (msn.com)

Three American tourists stabbed after being told to stop filming in popular Puerto Rico neighbourhood

BristolUK

Now there's an incentive to use telephones for making telephone calls.

BristolUK

New York woman found breathing at funeral home after being declared dead

Nutmegger

Just when you thought these people couldn't get any more moronic:

Boebert, Greene, Cruz, others decry "demonic" Grammys

What was so horribly "demonic" to these anti-vaxxers? Pfizer was a sponsor. Why, oh why, can't Covid just put them out of their misery . . .

tht

The second example in the story is much more worthy of a Darwin Award…

”The attack happened nearly two years after a tourist from Delaware was killed and set on fire after police said he was warned not to take pictures while buying drugs in La Perla. A friend of his also was beaten but survived.”

Lion in Winter

WTF?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...box=1676545889

"The Republican governor of Virginia, Glenn Youngkin, appears to have thwarted an attempt to stop law enforcement obtaining menstrual histories of women in the state."

Pulaski

Overnight news from California - stealing is wrong, but trying to steal a catalytic convertor from an occupied SUV is a particularly bad idea. At least the would-be thief won't make the same mistake again.

BristolUK

We've had a spate of those thefts in my city over the last few months as if it's something new.

Remembering that I don't drive and know nothing about the mechanics of cars, why are they considered worth stealing? Do they malfunction, or something, and they are being stolen to order for replacements? Are there that many crooked mechanics around that there is a market for stolen bits rather than legitimately sourced parts?

Pulaski

You don't need to know anything about mechanical things as a catalytic converter is not a mechanical device, it's about chemistry. A catalytic facilities a chemical reaction, typically by making a reaction considerably faster, by helping chemicals reaction without needing the input of a lot of energy/ heat. In the case of the catalytic converter in a car, it is inserted into the exhaust system and takes carbon monoxide and oxidizes it to carbon dioxide, reduces toxic oxides of Nitrogen to elementsl nitgen, which reduces acid pollution, and oxidizes any remaining petrol molecules.

So to your question, why steal a cat? The catalyst in a car's catalytic converter is comprised of platinum and rhodium, which is rarer and more valuable than platinum. .... The amounts of these precious metals are very small, but if you can find a dodgy scrap deal to take a cat, it's worth a few bucks.

Pulaski

You don't need to know anything about mechanical things as a catalytic converter is not a mechanical device, it's about chemistry. A catalytist facilitates a chemical reaction, typically by making a reaction considerably faster, by helping chemicals reaction without needing the input of a lot of energy/ heat.

In the case of the catalytic converter in a car, it is inserted into the exhaust system and takes carbon monoxide and oxidizes it to carbon dioxide, reduces toxic oxides of Nitrogen to elementsl nitgen, which reduces acid pollution, and oxidizes any remaining petrol molecules. So to your question, why steal a cat? The catalyst in a car's catalytic converter is comprised of platinum and rhodium, which is rarer and more valuable than platinum. .... The amounts of these precious metals are very small, but if you can find a dodgy scrap deal to take a cat, it's worth a few bucks.

Steerpike

Stealing Catalytic converters is nothing new; stealing from an occupied vehicle, where the vehicle driver drives off (and runs the thief over and kills them) is something of a new angle.

It's rampant in my area. My g/f already had a 'cover' installed on her car (at the cost of about $500). I'm going to get one installed on mine. The repair can be $1-2,000 including labor.

They especially target hybrids, as hybrid cat's see less use compared to conventional ICE cars (and we both have hybrids).

mikelincs

In the UK drivers are being warned NOT to park partly on pavements as this can act as something like a jack raising the car and allowing people to get at the cat more easily.