Police in Floyd County arrest three people they say are linked to a theft ring involving catalytic converters.

Police say 43-year-old Lowell Castle was arrested after an officer saw him trying to cut a converter off a vehicle in a gas station parking lot.

Two others were arrested who police say were looking out for castle.

People in Prestonsburg say they're fed up with how common catalytic converter thefts have gotten. Just ask Joseph Meadows. He, his friends and family have experienced it first hand.

"A bunch of my friends have gotten them stolen from them and I don't know why a bunch of people just can't get out here and make an honest living,” Joseph Meadows said.

That’s why he says he wasn't surprised when he witnessed a catalytic converter theft arrest early Tuesday morning at a Speedway in Prestonsburg.

"There was about four or five cop loads down here and there was two cars they towed off I guess. It’s just messed up that somebody would do something like that," Meadows said.

Police say they're not surprised by it anymore either.

"It was daylight out of course, people going in and out and they still tried to get one," Prestonsburg Police Department Detective Steve Little said.

Detective Little says in the last three months they've had nearly 20 catalytic converter thefts in the area because the people are selling them to recycling centers and scrap yards to make fast cash.

"The more people do it, they see it is gain, it is profitable they are making a gain so more people started doing it,” Little said.

"Where the metal is going so high right now at scrap yards and stuff, people are stealing them for the nickel and the precious metals that are inside of them," Advanced Auto Parts’ Rebecca Moore said.

Police say the thieves get somewhere around a $100 when they sell them and the theft victims have to spend several hundred dollars to get a new one.

“I don't see what much people can do because there's no way that you can secure these things anymore than they are. They’re part of the vehicle," Little said.

Little says they have increased patrols, which is what led to Tuesday's arrest. The three people arrested are also facing drug charges.