(no subject)

Living off the fat of the land? Arrest in theft of grease

By Mark Gomez
Mercury News
Article Launched: 04/03/2008 01:30:20 AM PDT

Apparently a double Whopper and large fries weren't enough for this man: He wanted more - used cooking oil, 300 gallons of it.

David Richardson, 49, was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of stealing grease after police said he siphoned it from a storage tank at a Morgan Hill Burger King.

A Burger King manager called police because he didn't recognize the truck belonging to a man he saw siphoning the oil. When police stopped Richardson, his 5,000-gallon oil tank was half-full.

Police suspect the Illinois man, who worked for Restaurant Oils of America in Las Vegas, intended to recycle the oil at an Atascadero refinery for $1.35 a gallon. A full tank would have been worth $6,750.

"Our guess is it's a biodiesel fuel thing. It's like someone stealing copper wire," said Morgan Hill police Cmdr. David Swing. "This might turn into something that starts to occur more frequently."

Edit: More detail in this article on MSNBC.