A manhunt was underway early Thursday morning in Chillicothe after a theft was caught in progress.
A man was in the area of a neighborhood U-Haul dealership near Tractor Supply Company on Bridge Street in Chillicothe at around 4 a.m. Thursday morning. That’s when the man saw someone underneath a U-Haul truck cutting off a catalytic converter.
When deputies arrived the suspect fled the area toward Bridge Street Landing apartments. Deputies called for assistance from the Highway Patrol and Chillicothe Police, who scoured the area.
The suspect was not immediately found and their identity was not released.
Catalytic converters are designed to act as a line of defense against harmful exhaust system emissions by turning pollutants into harmless gasses, according to Cars.com. Thieves target catalytic converters because they contain precious metals, like platinum, palladium or rhodium, that are valuable to metal dealers.