Whether it’s outside of work or home how would you realistically react if you caught them in the act? Would you confront the person? Would you stay silent for your safety and just call the police?
What if you walked outside and saw someone under your car cutting your catalytic converter off?
r/whatif
Comments
I’d be stunned anybody could even get under my Honda Accord. It’s got like 4” of ground clearance. I’d point the guy to one of the many jacked up trucks in my town. Easy pickins!
grab a saw all and take his cat
Well, it would be felony grand larceny you’re eyewitness to, so you may be legally authorized to perform a citizen’s arrest depending on your state. But seeing as how the cops aren’t even very good at making them, I wouldn’t advise it. If you cap a punk, do you really want to spend two years going back and forth to court to fight a 2nd Degree murder or manslaughter charge? All over a stupid piece of exhaust?
I’d let the dogs out, and call 911 to clean up the mess
Get in my car and drive off?
Laugh since I have an EV
Run him over
Automatic start The car have exhaust right in his face. Then call 911..
12 gauge
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This happened to me. I had sold my car to one of those places that’s just going to take it for scrap. The night of, a car was parked behind it and the dudes were doing their thang. I just let it happen. Didn’t effect the sale of the car at all since it was being sold as scrap. But this is really an edge case. Don’t know what I would have done if the car wasn’t supposed to be scrapped that day.
I would laugh at them for taking my muffler. My cat is in a place you can barely get your hands let alone a saw
Hit the remote starter?
He will still be laying there when the cops arrive
Texas allows lethal force for defense of property, and nobody has sympathy for cat thieves in my area. 🤷🏼♂️
Pressing the dump button for my bags 🤷🏻♂️
Hop in and throw it in neutral
Sit on them till the police get there.
Someone is getting a trip to the hospital if i walk up to my car and you’re damaging it.
I’ll think about the consequences later. I will probably end up with probation here in canada anyway, so basically it is consequence free.
I’d be surprised I had a car.
Breathe a sigh or leave cuz now I don’t have to figure out what I’m going to do for dinner for the rest of the week
My car is really low. I would immediately take them to the hospital for being extremely malnourished (as they would need to be to fit underneath)
If I knew for a fact that’s what they were doing, probably stomp their nuts.
I guess it’d be obvious if I heard a saw going. And my car is so low to the ground it would have to be jacked up. I’m thinking about the trucks I used to drive. Somebody could get up under one without jacking it up. If I didn’t hear a saw going do I think maybe it’s possible somebody has a kitten that ran up in there and they’re trying to get it back? Maybe. So maybe I just question them. Until I see some more evidence that they’re stealing something in which case, yeah, I get physical.
Start stomping the heck out of them.
Beat some ass!
I have pent up rage. The fight that would ensue would be horrible but I’d have my mastiff join in and someone else would have to call the cops. Coz one of us is not making it.
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I got the high ground so I’m doing a spinning sword flip and thrust down
I would get my less than lethal Byrna air gun and likely shoot them 10 times
Grab a gun and rob him
Steal their shoes
That’s a paddlin’
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Get in, start it up, and honk the horn.
Kick the jack and watch them squirm
Film and call the police.
Probably remote start and call police
I would hit my car alarm
Whoops the jack slipped
I would start kicking the crap out of whatever body parts were exposed from underneath my car. Bonus if they were stupid enough to jack it up, cause that jack is getting kicked first.
I have guns, so I’d be getting a free sawzall.
I would dish out some rough stuff until the cops got there. He probably just smashed his face on my truck undercarriage as I just pulled him out, held him, and called the cops, never touched him besides that. If you called the cops first they would just tell you to stay away till they get there, all while your shit gets hacked on.
I’d say hey buddy it’s a turbo, , , that’s the resonator you’re cutting off
Have a 22 Magnum! No worries!
Judging by what happened to that poor guy in Hollywood who interrupted the theft of his car…I would completely nope out and call the cops. Nothing, except protecting loved ones, is worth your life.
I’d drive off.
“Sorry officer , I didn’t see anyone down there.”
Jump on his ankle and break it.
But that won’t happen because I already had someone try to steal my car so I ponied up for a garage at my apartment
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Call the police do not confront – on the news there was several times people got shot during these confrontations
Id be very surprised considering the catalytic converters are in my garage on the shelf.
Laugh because mopeds don’t have cats.
You be surprised what a good stomp to a knee can do
Hit the hydraulics to lowest setting.
1- Remote start the car while they’re under it. Best case, it harms them… worst case, just startles them.
2- Deliver justice while they’re in a compromised position on the ground.
3- Drag them into the street (not the sidewalk… you’re legally responsible for everything to the edge of the curb) and call the cops. Someone just collapsed in the street.. they may be on drugs!
pop pop.
stay strapped or get clapped y’all
Baseball bat to the knees.
I don’t have catalytic converters anymore since I swapped over to Teslas back in 2018. But I still get you… what if someone was vandalizing the car. I live in Georgia so I’d just tell him to hold it, then call the cops and keep him there until they showed up. If he tried to go I’d just shoot him and say I felt threatened. Fill out the paperwork at the police station and then go home. Pretty straight forward.
A friend of mine had to shoot 3 muggers in a movie theater parking lot several years ago. Three kids were beating up an old man and Ken went over to tell them to knock it off, one of them pulled a gun so Ken blazed all 3 of them. He said the reports went pretty well and he was able to catch the next showing of the movie he went to see. So not bad.
I live in the rural south. Things would not go well for him. The catalytic converter on my car aint worth $20 in salvage lol. Then the dude has to deal with my dogs while lying under the car. Police take a pretty long time to show up out here. A long time to sit chewed up at shotgun point. It would suck to go to jail for that charge.
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Another subreddit notes that TN is working on changing its laws to allow for shooting the thief. Sounds like a good idea.
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You could just get in and start the vehicle. Pretty sure they will stop and flee
Laugh, my check engine light is because of it.
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Take the kid home, advise him to go for the tire caps on my batmobile, and then adopt him.
/s
I’m sorry i couldn’t resist
I’d grab my shotgun and introduce myself and invite him for coffee.
pew pew
Attack
Whatever you want. Tf they gonna do? Call the police
Ball stomp.
I’d just smile and make him a veg-a-mite sandwich
when burrying a body make sure you that bury it deeply and the suggested process is to place LYE in the hole. so as to kill smell. you ideally want to place the grave somewhere they are not going to develop for 20 or 30 years. The Suggestion in rivers and streams is 6 cinderblocks and place it in 6-7 feet of water where crabs and aquatic scavengers can pick the bones clean and where brackish water worms and such will slowly eat the bones of the body.
Take picture of miscreant.
Send it to the cops.
If i get in start up and drive, sorry officers, I didn’t see his legs stick out.
Jokes on him, my cat is hollowed out with a pipe going straight through it
Kick em da nutz
Stomp the groin.
I would point my carry at them and call the police.
After kicking him in the nuts as hard as my 6’3″ 300 pound frame can? Of course, nobody does that in NH. At least I’ve never heard of it here.
Kick his balls real hard with my steel toed boots while he’s helpless under the car.
Try to take photos when they come back out of them and their vehicle without them noticing and then call the cops.
I read about an off duty cop who came across someone cutting his off his truck, confronted them, was shot and died. Don’t think they ever caught the person.
It ain’t worth your life.
Get in my car doing my best not to disturb him then start it and put it in gear to scare the ahit out of him
I’d be calling an ambulance for them
Kick the shit out of him. And possibly demand a bribe for me to not call the police. I’m not gonna kill or maim the poor fellow over it tho.
That’s what Remote Start is for!
I live in Texas. Everyone here is issued guns at birth.
In all honesty, I’d say, “What’s up buddy? Can I help you?”
They’d make up a cock and bull story and I would pretend to believe their nonsense and report nothing. I can fix a tail pipe. I’d say “Enjoy the rest of your day”.
No reason to make a fuss. It’s a Cat. It can be replaced if necessary. No one was hurt.
In a perfect world, you’d call 911 and pop the tires in his/her getaway car with a pocketknife.
Chase him off or sum
shoot em
Broken knees maybe?
Quietly walk up to him, rack my Remington 870, watch his crotch turn wet and yellow as he mulls over his fate.
Tie their shoestrings together and then watch from nearby waiting for hilarity to ensue
Well a saw is a weapon.
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If it was at home, if hold him a gunpoint and call the cops. If it was at work, Is call security, who’d call the cops.
Hey buddy, what ya doing?
I’d call the police, and take pics. Get their license plate, too, if I can tell which car is theirs. If it’s at my house, that would be easy, I’m out in a rural area. Of course if it’s at my house, I’d be surprised they’d risk it, while my dogs were surrounding them, barking, as they certainly would be.
Maybe flatten a tire or 2 on their car, too. Just let the air out, not damage the tire, so I couldn’t be counter-charged with vandalism.
I’d get a pic when they get out from under my car, too.
Hit the command start?
His legs would have a Charlie Murphy on Rick James situation real quick.
Father and son caught thieves trying to steal their catalytic converters. They nailed them with paintballs.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/wo7uycAaMp0
Throw a strand of firecrackers under there? 🤔
He would probably never walk again.
Realistically? Say something. That will scare them off lmao. Someone cutting off your catalytic converter dosent usually want confrontation.
If they drive off in a car, try to remember the license plate if I can.
This is a true story, no names will be used.
I came out of my house at about one am because I had forgotten something in my car. To my surprise some guy is under my car with a Sawzall cutting of my catalytic converter.
I simply pulled out my pistol and my phone, and sat down on my front stairs. I dialed the police and said to the guy. “Do not move, I’d rather not have to shoot you.” He looked at me saw my pistol, a full sized service semiautomatic Ruger P95DC. Said “You’d shoot a guy over a fucking muffler?” I did not respond as that was when the line picked up. “911 what is the address of your emergency?” I told them my address and that I was holding a man at gunpoint for attempting to rob me. The dispatcher told me to remain calm someone was on the way, and could I put the gun down. I replied as soon as the officer rolls up I’ll put it down but I don’t want this guy to bolt and not get caught. The operator said, “I’d really like this situation to remain peaceful sir.” To which I replied. “As long a the nice gentleman under my car wit the Sawzall and the gun at his back doesn’t do anything stupid, I won’t have to escalate.” For some reason ant this point the operator was very quiet. Cut to 2 minutes later two police cars roll up and two cops get out of each car. They don’t wast time and neither do I. I place my gun on the ground, roll twice away from it and kiss some dirt, spread my arms out and calm wait for the cuffs. I get it, they want to make sure I don’t get squirrely and possibly cause harm to anyone. If car boy had had any sense at all it would been do in 7 minutes and we go out own ways. Yep, you guessed it he started arguing with the cops. Cause being an ass is totally known to make cops go easier on you. /s. After 15 minutes of pure bliss. Muffler boy was having a revelation. In hand-cuffs. Cut to 30 minutes later I’m at the precinct picking up my property and saying goodbye to the four very nice officers.
Moral of this story: FAFO
He or she would see a .45 pointed at them while u ask what the reason for being under my truck.
Simple answer.
My landlord came outside and found a guy cutting the cat off his prius. He just started kicking the guy’s lower half until he worked his way out from under the car and ran off. Still had to pay to get the exhaust system patched up because the guy was already cutting when they caught him.
Too many shot by those thieves lately. Home I would be going for my own gun.
I like the answers of moving the car.
Lower my hydraulic suspension and go back inside.
Good luck getting out from under my truck
I’d laugh. I’ve got a rebar cage around mine
A size 11 steeled toed boot right to the groin area a couple times ought to get his attention and then drop the car on him
A size 11 steeled toed boot right to the groin area a couple times ought to get his attention and then drop the car on him
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I’d break their legs with the shovel near my front door.
I’d move to protect my property and prevent them from ever coming back.
Laugh, one is already removed completely by choice, the other is hollow
Truck still runs like a champ
Just 02 sensor engine light, some good electric tape fixed that issue
Slash their tires and call the police.
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I own guns for a reason.
I would get in the car, start it up and start driving, act like I didn’t see him. It’s not like it’s a common occurrence to have someone under your car.
Free target practice.
In Chicago, someone yelled at the thief cutting up his car. The thief shot the guy.
I’d let my dogs out while I fetched my pump, one way or another the person wouldn’t be walking away
If you have a key fab, set off the car alarm.
He’ll lose a few years off his life, both from the shock and possible concussion he gave himself.
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Point my gun in his face
I’d say go ahead take it you need it more than I do apparently.
Sneak to their car, flatten tires, call police
Unzip and pee on them.
“I pity the fool”
Clean up on aisle three……
Kick ass!!
Take a loose interpretation of “nonlethal force” and make the world a better place
“Hey, moron! It’s electric. There’s no catalytic converter.”
Otherwise, I’d tak a flying leap onto his ankle and the drop all my weight onto the other leg – breaking as many bones as I could. “Sorry! I didn’t see you there. What are you doing?”
I’d call 911, and you’ll have to guess the rest. I don’t want to get banned.
That would be tough so I’d wonder what alien magic they were carrying
Kick them in the nuts
Hard kick or stomp right to the nuts.
I have a shotgun and I live in a state where murder is ok if you feel threatened.
https://preview.redd.it/kt0ws9j2m7te1.jpeg?width=474&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=de27bf3b17fa13ba013d87fb56e9260d64c8d231
Start up and drive over them.
Call the police. I likely wouldn’t approach them. I’m not getting myself shot over it.
I’ll cut his off while looking at him in the eyes
He would have trouble walking away with my cat on broken legs.
get in car and drive over him. go sorry officer did not see him in the dark.