DES MOINES, Iowa — Richard Yaw is no stranger to selling car parts. He run Yaw's Auto Salvage in Des Moines. But, he's also all too familiar with having car parts stolen.
"It's just getting worse and worse as the price keeps rising," Yaw told Local 5 as he walked the perimeter of his salvage yard looking for spots criminals have broken in.
"Every day ... constantly patching holes in the fence," Yaw said.
The problem is so bad that he says his business is getting targeted almost every night.
"We're losing somewhere between five and 20 a week, easily ... that are getting stolen out of our yards," he said.
This crime can affect almost anyone.
Des Moines Police Department detectives said they're seeing an uptick in this crime, and the Iowa State University Police Department tweeted out a warning to students stating:
"With the nice weather we have been experiencing, police departments all over the state of Iowa have noticed an increase in catalytic converter thefts. Here are some important things to know."
Terry Allen, owner of Terry's Wholesale Exhaust, says he replaces dozens of catalytic converters every week.
"There was a catalytic converter in this space right here," said Allen, as he stood underneath a car in his shop that had just had its catalytic converter stolen.
Driving the surge, is the rising price of the precious metals that are used to make catalytic converters. Rhodium price per ounce is nearing $30,000.
To be clear, any one catalytic converter contains a relatively small portion of the metal, but it's enough make it worthwhile for thieves. Depending on the catalytic converter, thieves can sell the part as scrap metal for anywhere from a few dollars to a few hundred dollars.
So what can you do?
Yaw says a good security system can help.
"That's the only way your going to be able to do it," he said. "You're going to have to get somebody on camera and get their face in order for authorities to do anything."
Allen recommends keeping your vehicle close.
"Park you car close to your house. If it's summer time, leave you windows open because it's a noisy process. There is no way to make it quiet," he said.