A gang of thieves have been caught on camera stealing a catalytic converter from a car parked on a Birmingham street in broad daylight.
The footage shows a man get on his hands and knees to look underneath a parked car before getting a trolley jack to raise the vehicle.
An accomplice is then seen getting out the back of the getaway car with a tool which is used to cut off the catalytic converter within seconds.
Moments later they head back to their own vehicle and make off with the cat.
Last year the Met Police warned gangs are stripping cars of the converters to cash in on the rhodium, palladium and platinum contained in the devices.
The metals which clean cars’ toxic gases can be recycled for use in jewellery, dentistry and electronics .
Police have advised etching security details into the converters, installing extra bolts or protective sleeves to make them harder to cut out and “defensive parking” against a wall or by another lower-slung vehicle to make it more difficult to reach under.
Ian Crowder, of the AA, said: “It’s not an amateur job to recover precious metals as they are toxic and you need various chemical treatments to extract them.
“They are done by factories particularly overseas.
“When sufficient are collected, they will put them in a container and ship them off.”