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Re:Someone attached an AirTag to my car while I was in a bar by filoleg on Sunday December 19, 2021 @06:45PM (#29619856)
A bit of an off-tangent: does your friend live in Seattle? Because catalytic converter and bike theft in broad daylight have become a staple here, but it is definitely not the norm in other cities.

So I wouldn't judge how easy it is to do something like that in general, based on a city where the prosecution is notorious for letting all kinds of criminals get released the morning after, which leads to the police not bothering with "minor" crimes like this (i.e., what's the point, if they will just get released the morning after and you waste both your time and the department time).

Re:Someone attached an AirTag to my car while I was in a bar by 1123581321 on Sunday December 19, 2021 @07:51PM (#29620354)
Catalytic converter theft is big everywhere, unfortunately. It's most common in larger cities, but it's worth the effort for thieves to travel out of town as well.

[catalytic converter theft map] is a productive search with some graphics, some dating back years: https://www.google.com/search?q=catalytic+converter+theft+ma...

Not intending any greater point about AirTags.

Re:Someone attached an AirTag to my car while I was in a bar by throwaway0a5e on Sunday December 19, 2021 @08:29PM (#29620608)
Cat theft, and petty property crime in general, is way worse in the cities that decline to prosecute which basically boils down to "the west coast and a few pinpoints on the east coast."
Re:Someone attached an AirTag to my car while I was in a bar by xnyan on Sunday December 19, 2021 @10:54PM (#29621402)
I hear this opinion (or something like it, basically that property crime is only an issue in the west because city governments are not harsh/violent/punitive enough) repeated often.

My anecdata: I live in a city where cops can and do whatever they want to people without serious oversight. Petty theft is met with both maximum violence and prosecution. it does not seem to have much effect on crime rates.

Re:Someone attached an AirTag to my car while I was in a bar by cafard on Monday December 20, 2021 @09:03AM (#29625030)
Washington, DC, does not decline to prosecute, but there was a rash of catalytic converter thefts in my neighborhood not that long ago. I'd have guessed that these thefts are tied to the popularity of hybrid vehicles, in particular Priuses.
Re:Someone attached an AirTag to my car while I was in a bar by syngrog66 on Monday December 20, 2021 @12:32AM (#29621841)
cat theft?!

I would assume dogs have higher resale value on Craigslist

Re:Someone attached an AirTag to my car while I was in a bar by comex on Sunday December 19, 2021 @08:33PM (#29620629)
Citation?
Re:Someone attached an AirTag to my car while I was in a bar by ClumsyPilot on Sunday December 19, 2021 @07:19PM (#29620126)
nah, it's a town in UK

I can't make sense of what's going on with prosecutions there, sometimes I hear about people getting away with major crimes, other times some poor sod gets charged for possessing 'material useful to terrorists', The Anarchist Cookbook, which you can buy on Amazon.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-5892603...