DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- A dangerous, potentially deadly crime has surfaced in Daytona Beach. Thieves are going after air conditioners, but they're not going after the copper.

Thieves want what's inside the copper pipes. Instead of stealing the actual copper, what was missing was the Freon, the gas, that's inside. Thieves likely inhaled it, going for a cheap high and one that can kill.

When the Ultimate Omelet House in Daytona Beach (see map) lost its air conditioning, the first thought of repair men climbing up to the roof may have been copper theft. But the hole ripped in the side of the A/C unit told them it probably had nothing to do with metal theft.

"Huffing Freon was never something that, and I used to be a Daytona Beach cop, you just never heard of that sort of thing," said restaurant owner Dan Byrd.

Police also think that thieves broke open the pipe to get at the Freon, the refrigerant inside.

"There was a problem a few years back," said Tom McGuire, Flair Air Conditioning.

McGuire said, in the heating and air industry, it's a well-known problem. The Freon gas is inhaled to get high, but it hasn't been an issue for years in Central Florida until this latest incident.

It's not only expensive for customers to replace, over $400 in this case, it's so dangerous it could kill the thief on the spot.

"It's going right into their head and they're getting a high that way. If they should happen to sniff the refrigerant liquid, it could kill them by vaporizing their lungs," McGuire said.

The Freon is also under pressure and can explode if you break into pipes, as was done at the restaurant, causing freezer burns and instant frostbite if it makes contact with skin.