MARENGO - Iowa's war on meth might have taken a new twist.

Nearly a half dozen pharmacies in small eastern Iowa communities have had run-ins with burglars. Break-ins, or attempted break-ins, over the last two weeks have happened in Belle Plaine, Marengo, Traer, Toledo and Victor. Burglars ignored cash registers and controlled substances. Instead, they cleared shelves of cold medicine.

By law, stores cannot put certain cold or allergy medicines with pseudoephedrine within easy reach. Those boxes are behind the counter. That's because drug makers use this substance to make methamphetamine. And in this recent string of pharmacy burglaries, that's all that got snatched.

"It's very strange. They're taking this big chance to do this. It must be very important to them," said Tom Ryan, Peterson Pharmacy.

At Peterson Pharmacy, burglars took 30 boxes of common cold medicine with pseudoephedrine. The break-in, on August 1st, was the beginning of the recent string.

The Iowa County sheriff thinks an attempt to get inside this Victor pharmacy Sunday was the most recent.

"We've talked to other neighboring communities and we've heard more. We've seen teletypes from other agencies. So we're just trying to work together to see what's going on," said Galen Moser, Marengo Police Chief.

Investigators say Iowa's law that limits the purchase of medicine with pseudoephedrine also records buyers.

Meth makers who may be turning to pharmacy burglaries may be having trouble getting enough pseudoephedrine any other way.

One Traer pharmacy did lose some other merchandise, along with cold medicines. But that was the one exception.

Investigators say they're trying to spread the word to pharmacy owners and other police departments to watch out for this apparent new trick by drug makers.