Should You Be Guarding Your Old Fry Oil?

(Photo: likeyourhandle)

This seems like a relatively hard way for a thief to earn a living, but a 38-year-old New Yorker has been arrested for siphoning off used cooking oil from a pair of restaurants in Connecticut. From the Westport News:

Until two or three years ago, restaurateurs had to pay to get rid of used fry grease. Now they are able to sell it to a few companies in the area, who turn it into bio fuel that can be used to heat houses or operate diesel engines. …

Grease can be worth as much as $1.60 per gallon, police said following a similar investigation in Norwalk about two weeks ago. Police seized a large tanker truck in that investigation, but no arrests have been made.

The thief’s van contained two 275-gallon tanks, which would put his maximum haul at roughly $880. According to this 2008 Times article on grease rustling, the going price was nearly $2.50 a gallon.

I am curious to hear from any buyers or sellers (or thieves) of used grease to learn their going prices.