State police looking into widespread reports of used cooking oil theft
Jun. 14—When Luigi's Pizza in Olyphant opened the day after Memorial Day, co-owner Vincenzo Cicco said workers discovered a problem.
Someone had broken in, but the crooks did not target the cash register. They broke into the grease dumpster that collects the restaurant's used cooking oil.
"The dumpster was broken into and oil was scattered all over the place," Cicco said Friday, estimating the thieves took hundreds of gallons. "They made a mess."
A rash of reported thefts of used cooking oil from restaurants appears to have spread across the region and elsewhere, prompting an inquiry from the state police.
The Bureau of Criminal Investigation is "currently working with local and state law enforcement agencies concerning used cooking oil thefts" that have cropped up in Northeast Pennsylvania, Cpl. Brent Miller, a spokesman for the state police in Harrisburg, said in an email.
"Multiple reports in municipal jurisdictions of the same item (in this case used cooking oil)" prompted involvement from the state police, Miller said.
Historically a waste product, used cooking oil — "yellow grease" — has shot up in value as a commodity because it can be recycled into biofuel. That's made it a target for criminal organizations.
For example, in June 2019, federal agents brought charges against 21 co-conspirators who targeted restaurants in North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee and stole $3.9 million worth of used cooking oil over five years by pumping the oil from restaurant storage tanks into their trucks, the Associated Press reported.
In announcing the charges, Robert J. Higdon Jr., then U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, said the objective was to profit in illicit trade by transporting the cooking oil to New Jersey for sale and distribution.
At the time, the U.S. Department of Agriculture listed the value of a 100-pound load of "yellow grease" at $25, the AP reported. As of last week, the department's data listed it at $42 to $44.
Aside from the mess, thefts also can hurt restaurants because companies they contract with for cooking oil collection pay them a rebate that — while often not a large amount — is still useful.
The state police encouraged victims to contact their local police department.
Cicco said he called the Olyphant police June 1 to report the theft. A police report taken by Patrolmen Timothy Cramer and Shawn Lahey estimated the volume of stolen oil at about 450 gallons at a total price of nearly $2,000.
Sumit Majumdar, owner of New York based Buffalo Biodiesel Inc., which contracts with numerous area restaurants to collect their used cooking oil, said the amount of thievery in the last year nearly put him out of business. He said that thieves use unmarked or poorly marked vans and trucks to steal the cooking oil and, if confronted, claim they're subcontractors. "Without a question," he said, Buffalo has been targeted by organized crime.
"There's no pawn shop that would buy used cooking oil," he said.
Contact the writer: jkohut@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9100, x5187; @jkohutTT on Twitter.
