METAL HEADS

Fearless thieves were captured on camera jacking up a parked car in broad daylight to rob its catalytic converter for scrap.

The thieves even held up traffic in a London Street as one of them worked underneath the car with an electric drill.

They appeared nonchalant about the police interfering as they removed the part, which costs at least £400 to replace, flinging it into the waiting car and drove off.

Theft of the catalytic converters, which are fitted to all cars to clean up emissions, is motivated by the precious metal they contain.

A clip was posted by Newham People’s Alliance on Friday with the caption ‘Another incident gang stealing catalytic converters in daylight without any fear’ and the video shows someone working on the underside of a red car which was jacked up on one side in St Bernard’s Road, East Ham.

An eyewitness in the background could be heard saying that they were robbing a car in the middle of the road and as the incident was unfolding, a black Volkswagen Passat could be seen with its back door open, stopped in the centre of the road with traffic being blocked.

Someone said that they weren’t frightened at all as several people stood back and watched the incident without interfering.

A man wearing all black clothing and a mask then emerges from underneath the red car and puts the catalytic converter in the back of the Volkswagen and the crew then drove away as if nothing had happened before the video concludes.

On social media, Bobby Pinto said that they should have just let the jack down while he was under it and Michael Smith said they should have run his legs over or dropped the jack down on him, then see if his mates drive off or help.

However, numerous users criticised those who seemed not to intervene and Adam Campbell said that it was amusing how everyone just watched and done nothing and that this was a big part of the reason why they get away with it in this snowflake society.

The Metropolitan Police declined to comment on the specific incident but appealed to car owners to take precautions but they said they’d documented 900 incidents of catalytic converter thefts since July 2018.

A spokeswoman said the theft of catalytic converters wasn’t a new phenomenon, it was something they’d seen in London for some time and it was thought to be the precious metal within the converters which made them appealing to thieves who they believe strip the things down and sell the metal on.

But don’t fritter your time contacting the police if this happens to you because it seems they’re not interested in catching these crooks, and it also seems as if they’re not interested in most things these days and prisons are now full to overflowing.

The police will, however, give you a crime reference number so that you can claim off your insurance, but then they get back to reading the important guides on Political Correctness and the Virtue Signalling for Dummies.

And it seems that they’re now only there to protect corporations, but everyone else gets a crime reference number and the general public don’t want to get involved because it’s simply not worth it – why risk your life when you could quickly get stabbed in the process – people want to stay safe.

But it now seems that we have to start by putting chains around our exhaust pipes as well as our tools, and to be fair, even if someone had given the thieves a slap and the police did turn up, you would be the one getting arrested and the crooks know it.