A BRADFORD man was furious after he discovered three yobs were trying to steal a catalytic converter from his car which was parked directly in front of his house.

Mahbub Ali, who lives in Clifton Villas, just off Manningham Lane, saw them attempt to obtain the pricey piece of equipment from his Toyota Hybrid at around 10pm on Tuesday.

It was only thanks to his brother hearing strange noises that nothing was stolen as he raced out to scare the men off.

A catalytic converter is an exhaust 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, which contained the trio, reverses into the car park. Person A gets out of the passenger seat and looks under the vehicle to check if it has a catalytic converter.

He then reports back to the Fiesta before grabbing a jack. Person B gets out of the back of the car with more equipment. After the car is lifted next to its front right tyre, he gets to work while Person A stands outside Mahbub’s property on watch.

By this point, the driver (Person C) has already opened the boot. Fortunately, the males were unable to detach the catalytic converter from the car. As Person A puts the jack in the boot, they flee, with their third door wide open, as soon as they see Mahbub’s brother run out.

Uber driver Mahbub said: “It happened just outside my front room window. It is a closed-off estate, so you don’t expect something like that to happen.

"It costs a lot to get that replaced as it has to come from manufacturers because you can’t get third party ones to be fitted. A part like that from Toyota can cost anything up to about £700. When you are a cab driver and things aren’t looking so great, especially after Covid, it would have hurt my pocket quite a lot.

"I just thought people should be notified. I have seen videos on Facebook of it happening, but I never thought it would happen to me. The more people that are notified, the more vigilant they can be.”

A West Yorkshire Police spokesperson said: “Police received a report of an attempted catalytic converter theft from a vehicle at Clifton Villas in Manningham, Bradford. The incident took place at around 9.55pm on August 31. Enquiries are currently ongoing.”