Police appeal after catalytic converter thefts from Southport supermarket car park

Last Saturday, 26th March the catalytic converter was stolen from a car, parked in the car park at Morrisons in Southport.

This is a re-emergence of a pattern of thefts that occurred in the Southport area last summer. At that time, thefts of catalytic converters took place at other town centre car parks, other supermarket car parks and at beauty spots. All the thefts took place during the middle of the day and at busy locations where several people will have witnessed the thefts, without realising what was happening. No arrests were made at the time, but a car involved was found and seized.

In order to steal catalytic converters thieves will identify a target vehicle and, operating very quickly, will jack the car up and use a cutting tool to cut the catalytic converter off. They may appear as if they are just doing repair work on a car, or wear high visibility tabards to 'hide in plain sight'. If you see anyone acting in this manner in car parks, photographs, video or dash cam footage of the people involved and vehicles used by them, will be vital in helping us to arrest them. Call us on 999 if you believe you are seeing a crime in process or 101 if you have information or footage of an incident at a later date. 

These thieves are brazen and carry out their crimes in busy areas. Please help us to catch them by reporting people you believe may be carrying out this type of crime.