This shit is going off in california right now, scrapper might get 50 or 100 bucks, but the owner of the car gets absolutely fucked. Since CA has separate emissions certs many older cars dont have replacement cats available that are CARB certified, and if a shop gets caught installing non CARB equipment on an exhaust system they are in deep shit.

Some thief's 50 buck payday can leave your 20k truck un registerable in the state, and therefore undriveable and basically unsellable.