Some auto thieves aren't after an entire vehicle, just what's underneath. At least three catalytic converters have been stolen in recent days, likely sold for scrap metal.

In broad daylight and in just a matter of seconds, surveillance cameras at a midtown parking lot caught a crime on tape. A man got out of his car, slid under a truck and took something. According to the truck's owner, that something was the catalytic converter and replacing it costs about $1,000.

It’s a fee an Omaha day care center also has to pay after its van was hit. "I just don't know why somebody would steal it,” says Melissa Coleman at The Learning Center.

“It didn't make any sense. It just pushed our timetable back a little further from having the van and more money we have to pay out our pockets."

It happened at a midtown auto repair shop where the van was parked outside overnight. Coleman got a phone call from the mechanic.

"He said he didn't know who did it, he just came on the property one morning and it was not on the van." The center has to add an extra $700 to its repair bill. That's the cost of their new catalytic converter.

Jim Champion with Charlie Graham Auto Repair says it only takes thieves about a minute to slide under a vehicle with a power saw and they're gone.

"They literally can get underneath the car, hit that, cut right through the exhaust pipe, both sides, pull it out and they're gone within 60 seconds."

So why the catalytic converter? "Inside there it's kind of a honeycomb, all over the inside of there and that's coated with a precious metal,” says Champion.

Precious metal, that when stolen, leaves the victim with a pricey repair bill. In some cases your insurance policy may cover some of the cost to replace a stolen converter.

Unfortunately there's really not anything you can do to protect against such a theft, other than parking in a well lit area and hope you're not the next victim.