A Bradford man was furious when he discovered three young people were trying to steal a catalytic converter from his car parked right outside his house.
Mahbub Ali, who lives at Clifton Villas near Manningham Lane, saw her trying to get the expensive device from his Toyota Hybrid around 10 p.m. Tuesday.
It was only thanks to his brother that he heard strange noises, that nothing was stolen from him as he ran to scare the men away.
A catalytic converter is an emission control device. Thieves target these because they contain platinum and other precious metals.
A clip from Mahbub’s CCTV camera captured the crime. A Ford Fiesta containing the trio reverses into the parking lot. Person A gets up from the passenger seat and looks under the vehicle to see if it has a catalytic converter.
Then he reports back to the fiesta before grabbing a jack. Person B gets out of the rear with more equipment. After lifting the car next to the front right tire, he gets to work while Person A stands guard in front of Mahbub’s property.
At this point the driver (person C) has already opened the trunk. Fortunately, the males failed to remove the catalytic converter from the car. When person A puts the jack in the trunk, they flee with the third door wide open as soon as they see Mahbub’s brother running away.
Uber driver Mahbub said, “It happened right outside my front room window. It’s a gated property so don’t expect something like this to happen.
“It costs a lot to get it replaced because it has to come from the manufacturers because you can’t have a third party install it. A Toyota part like this can cost up to around £ 700. If you’re a taxi driver and it doesn’t look great, especially after Covid, it would have hurt my bag quite a bit.
“I just thought people should be notified. I’ve seen videos on Facebook where it happens, but I never thought something like this would happen to me. The more people are notified, the more vigilant they can be. ”
A West Yorkshire Police spokesman said: “Police received a report of an attempted theft of a catalytic converter from a vehicle at Clifton Villas in Manningham, Bradford. The incident occurred around 9:55 p.m. on August 31. The investigation is currently ongoing. ”
