There’s been a spike in car thefts with thieves targeting a valuable part that most cars have: the catalytic converter.

Located underneath the car, catalytic converters are the emission control device that converts toxic gases from your exhaust into less-toxic pollutants.

Thieves have been crawling underneath cars parked outside homes, train stations or at work, with a grinder and ripping them out.

CEO of Motor Trade Association Queensland, Rod Camm, joined Neil Breen on Brisbane Live to explain why this is happening.

“Guys turn up in a Ute, jack an SUV up, everyone thinks they must be fixing it, but they’re not, they’re cutting out the catalytic converter or the GPS”, Mr Camm said.

“It’s taken a while to get some police interest in it” but “the police have now mounted a bit of a campaign in court”, Mr Camm said.

Mr Camm warns listeners to “lock your car up at night or it will happen to you”.

Press PLAY below to be informed about this thieving trend

One listener told Neil Breen he’d had the catalytic converter stolen from his vehicle recently – shockingly the thieves didn’t take longer than 2 minutes.

Press PLAY to hear his account

To know what a catalyst-converter-theft looks like, watch this 9News video of a man caught in the act in Sydney late last year.

Image: Andia/Universal Images Group/Getty Images