Motorists who park their vehicles outside Burnham-On-Sea’s Tesco supermarket have this week been warned to be extra vigilant following several thefts.
Two drivers say catalytic converters were cut off their Honda cars on Wednesday while they were shopping in the store.
Burnham-On-Sea Police have asked for anyone with information to get in contact on 101.
There has been a huge rise in catalytic converters being stolen from cars across the UK this year, police say.
For the first six months of 2019, the number of national thefts of catalytic converters jumped to 2,894, compared to 1,674 thefts for all of 2018.
In a car’s exhaust system, catalytic converters clean up harmful gases before they exit the exhaust pipe.
The prices of certain precious metals often used in catalytic converters has risen in the last 18 months – palladium is now worth £1,300/oz, while rhodium goes for £4,000/oz, according to FJ Church and Sons, a specialist metals merchant that is also the UK’s largest specialist in recycling catalytic converters.
