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Comment by reustle | Hacker News Reader

People would grind off the serial numbers and sell them on the secondary market, or for the metals. With motorcycles, for example, motors and frames have vin numbers stamped to help prevent this, but you’ll sometimes see cheap parts for sale with the vin cleaned off.

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In case anyone thinks this is cost prohibitive or the tooling is rare, a $100 battery powered grinder you can buy from Home Depot will do this in five seconds. If you have a little less money and a little more time, a $5 flat file will do the same thing in a few minutes.

You know... we already have vehicle IDs on the body, the frame, and the engine on/in our cars. Those do lead to arrest every day here in the U.S.

Depends. The number stamping process does change the metal’s underlying metallurgy throughout the the metal where it was stamped. So unless you drill out the number through the entire metal (which is viable if you’re going to extract the minerals), there’s a possibility of reconstructing the serial number with some level of probability.

Happens with guns.

But that’s why you criminalize the trade of unmarked parts. Actually makes the prosecutor’s job easy that way rather than proving the part was actually stolen and not your retirement cat investment.

> The number stamping process does change the metal’s underlying metallurgy throughout the the metal where it was stamped. So unless you drill out the number through the entire metal (which is viable if you’re going to extract the minerals), there’s a possibility of reconstructing the serial number with some level of probability.

Do you happen to have more information on that?

Here’s an example of it in practice: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/why-police-wanted-se...

Other info is a google away, just search for reconstructed serial numbers or similar queries.

It’s not exactly a secret, but how successful it can be is.

Yeah: No one thinks it's mechanically difficult to remove identifiers. The point is to make such altered parts illegal to buy. Similar to VIN restrictions or handgun signifiers in many states.

The thieves do not care about this and neither do the scrappers. They’ll both grind the serials off within a minute of taking possession if they’re still there.

The point is that a cat with ground identifier is just as illegal to possess as one that is definitely stolen.

The issue then becomes "plausible deniability". You cannot claim you didn't know they were stolen if the serial number is ground off.

So whomever grind the numbers off, may as well cut it open and extract the metals. It puts a major obstacle in the supply chain.

Why can’t it be a felony to buy said items?

Because that's not what happens with stolen catalytic converters, so it wouldn't change anything. Stolen cathalytic converters are valuable due to precious metals that can be extracted from them.

We currently successfully regulate freon emissions. How do we do that? It surprises me that it's possible but it seems to work.

Probably has to do with not being able to earn a few hundred dollars in a few minutes with the education of how to use a simple cutting tool from Home Depot.

On the ground, the situation with CFC refrigerants is probably a lot leakier (pun intended) than you think.

There are a lot of AC systems repaired at stations that don't even own a recovery machine. (This is legal, so long as the system has already leaked out to nothing before starting the repair. I suspect that gets a wink and a nod a fair amount of the time.)

Some refrigerants can only be legally sold to resellers or to users with an EPA certification. Sounds strict, huh? Well...the 609 certification test can be done online, is open book, and cost me $25 and 15 minutes to get.

Okay, well, so much for that idea! :D

It already is. Pawnshops and a lot of other businesses are not allowed to buy items with defaced serial numbers in most states. The stolen converter fences are already operating outside the law and I think what he is saying is that the serial numbers are sort of irrelevant here because the stolen converters are getting melted down anyway and it’s not gonna be on the shelves anywhere for someone to spot.

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