Hi,
I'm new to this Forum; live in Reno NV. We drive older cars: me a 2007 Prius with 150K miles; husband a 2007 Hyundai with 70K; and under our insurance, living down the road and parking his car outside the apartment, 20-something son drives a 2005 Honda Accord with 70K miles.
2021 - Prius catalytic converter stolen in 2021, from our driveway, middle of the night. Noone heard a thing.
2022 - Honda's catalytic converter just stolen, parked outside son's apartment, under streetlight.
PROBLEM: Not only was the cat stolen, and excess muffler pipe damaged in the process, the WIRE HARNESS was cut, mangled. According to a reputable mechanic.
Son drove car carefully to shop this morning to have new cat installed plus a Cat Shield. Dashboard all lit up of course. Mechanic just called him and said the harness was mangled either by a newby stealing the cat, or by someone just plain nasty. It needs replacing! Car must go to Honda for assessment. We are told by Hartford insurance will likely write off the car as too expensive to repair for remaining value of car. Per mechanic, cost to replace/repair wire harness brings total parts and labor (with Cat install etc) over $5-6K.

Wondering if others have had this experience with cat theft damage?
Wondering, if - considering that not all wires have been cut since he was able to drive the car across town, whether there might be a cheaper, non-Honda repair and replacement of the wire harness a realistic consideration?
Or should the sweet "first decent car for college grad" be totalled if that is Hartford's only offer?

Thank you, Melanie in Reno (a catalytic converter thieves paradise, apparantly)