Woman’s Catalytic Converter Stolen from her Toyota While Parked at LRT

So, apparently, a Toyota’s catalytic converter fetches a good price in the black market as a woman who parked her car at an LRT in KL found out.

As shared on XHS, on 22 April, the woman returned to her car at around 7pm at the Awan Besar LRT parking lot.

Based on the images, it seems like this parking lot is really out in the open with potential for many witnesses, which makes this theft quite a feat.

In the post, the woman recalls a loud bang coming from her vehicle when she tried to start the engine and after a few attempts, she realised there was something wrong with the car.

Looking underneath, she saw that something was missing.

She also mentioned that she contacted a few car mechanics who said that replacement parts can cost upwards of RM4,000.

The cheapest would cost RM1,000. We found this on Shopee, claiming to be an OEM catalytic converter for a Toyota Vios which cost only RM600.

There’s also a 5-star listing for a catalytic converter for a Vellfire or Estima at RM1,050. Since the poster did not specify the model of her car, it’s hard to say how much it might have cost.

Digging further into the issue, we found this report from 2023 about how easy it is to sell these parts and even an article by Toyota about protecting your car from catalytic converter theft.

Thankfully, the article does point out that the newer your car, the lower your risk for theft due to the lower amount of precious metals such as rhodium, platinum and palladium in the make of the parts.

That article was posted in 2019, and people are still commenting on that article in 2025 asking if their car is at risk—6 years later.

Do you own a Toyota with a pristine catalytic converter? You may want to consider putting a tag on it or a booby trap. We recommend a glitter bomb.