DAYTON — The prospects of a higher return on an investment continue to make precious metals and certain car parts the booty of choice for thieves, area police said.

"It's an ongoing battle. With the value of these precious metals rising, it's worthwhile now for (thieves) to go out and steal it," Miami County sheriff's Lt. Steve Lord said.

"I would say 80 percent of these (thieves) are stealing to finance their heroin and crack addiction."

Earlier this month, spools of copper wire worth more than $5,000 were stolen from the Tipp City power plant on South Garber Road.

In January, Dayton police caught a man stealing copper from the historic Arcade downtown. He has since been charged with breaking and entering.

Thieves have also targeted catalytic converters for the platinum they contain, ripping or cutting the device from underneath vehicles in minutes, police said.

Platinum has risen to more than $2,000 an ounce on commodities markets. The catalytic converter, which converts harmful engine emissions into less-harmful nitrogen and carbon dioxide emissions, usually contains 4 to 7 grams of platinum.

Replacing a catalytic converter — found on every automobile made since the 1970s — usually costs more than $1,000 new, said John Schindler of Jim City Salvage in Moraine. He said the business has had to install sensor and motion flood lights to deter thieves from hopping fences at the business and cutting converters off its cars.

Dayton police Sgt. Moises Perez, a supervisor for the department's burglary unit, said copper and catalytic converter thefts are up from this time last year. Since Jan. 1, 2007, there have been 160 incidents of copper thefts in the city and 13 reported thefts of catalytic converters, he said.

It's difficult to track specific incidents involving converters because the incidents usually are segregated in police incident reports under the broader categories of thefts, burglaries and break-ins, Perez said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2263 or rfox@DaytonDailyNews.com. Staff Writer Angela Watson Gay contributed to this report.

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