Used cooking oil stolen from Littleton restaurant amid growing crime

LITTLETON, Mass. — A Littleton restaurant was targeted by thieves in search of used cooking oil Friday, amid a rise in such thefts across the nation.

The criminals pulled around the back of Il Forno in a van Friday afternoon, hopped out and casually began using their equipment to siphon the used fryolator oil from the outdoor storage bin and into a tank in the van.

“In the middle of lunchtime with a lot of people coming and going, and these people showed up and have the guts to do such a thing,” owner Mike Mohamed said. “It’s a disrespect. Basically, that’s what it is. This is not yours to take.”

Cook Earl Finan was on his lunch break when he saw the men pull up. After a second glance, he realized the van didn’t look like a vehicle that would belong to the rendering company that removes the oil.

“It was a beat-up white van, but it had a compressor, and it must’ve had a tank,” Finan said. “And the thing was going like the regular pick-up. It just felt like it was on the up-and-up, but something was a little off.”

Finan discreetly snapped some pictures of the van with a green hose out the back doors as the men pumped the oil into their container within a matter of minutes and fled.

Finan then called the rendering company and confirmed they were not supposed to be at the restaurant. His next call was to police, who are now investigating the crime.

Finan provided the New Jersey license plate to police, but a search yielded no results, he said.

Officers told Mohamed at least one other cooking oil theft occurred around the same time at a restaurant in a nearby town.

Recycled cooking oil is valuable because it can be converted into biodiesel, and criminals can sell it on the black market.

As the demand for biofuel increases, so-called “yellow grease” thefts are on the rise.

Mohamed himself has noticed the increase in price of cooking oil. On the same day of the theft, another rendering company had approached him offering 60 cents per gallon for his used cooking oil – several times more than what he currently receives.

While the crime isn’t a big loss for Mohamed, the rendering industry loses millions of dollars each year to oil theft, according to federal authorities.

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