Canterbury police are warning of a rise in the theft of valuable car parts over the past few months.

Thieves are specifically targeting catalytic converters, which are made of valuable metals.

Police say they’ve recorded at least 50 instances of these being stolen in the past few months.

These thefts are occurring from vehicles parked in the open, on the side of the road and in some cases car yards and vehicle storage facilities.

Police are encouraging the reporting of any theft, including that of catalytic converters removed from vehicles.

Residents are being urged to to call police if they notice any unusual behaviour including people crawling under cars late at night.

A police spokesperson said Members of the NZ Association of Metal Recyclers are working actively to prevent metal theft and the industry is concerned at the rising number of catalytic converter thefts.

“Members work with local Police on metal thefts through the AMR online reporting system for stolen metal and other items and AMR strongly encourage all thefts to be first reported directly to the Police so that the police file number can be referenced on the report.”

Police warning people against buying scrap metal or second-hand car parts from Facebook or other social media.