HOWELL, Mich. – A security camera catches someone attempting to steal used cooking oil from a restaurant in Howell.
According to DAR PRO Solutions, grease theft gets little attention but costs tens of millions of dollars each year.
Joe Matley, the owner of Griffs Grill in Holand, said the attempted theft happened Sunday (Feb. 25) when the restaurant was closed.
Matley happened to be there and saw a white pump truck pull up to the grease container near the dumpster.
“I’m like, what the heck is this guy doing,” said Matley. “He’s at the wrong place or something.”
He noticed the truck had no markings and asked the driver if he was trying to steal his used cooking oil.
“That’s when he started to get all sketchy because I was questioning him on it, and then he hopped in his truck and took off,” Matley said.
The truck had no license plate, but Matley still filed a police report.
Matley explained that in the past ten years or so, used cooking oil has become a commodity.
“Twenty or 30 years ago, we used to have to pay companies to come and get rid of it,” Matley said. “Then they figured out, ‘Hey, we can make biodiesel fuel out of it. We can refine it and use it in a lot of things.’”
Companies like DAR PRO Solutions pay restaurants like Griffs Grill a couple of hundred dollars a month to pick up their used cooking oil, the same oil that thieves target.
DAR PRO Solutions estimates that $75 million of used cooking oil is stolen yearly.
“It’s a big black market business of people stealing grease and then selling it back to the recycling places,” Matley said.
Matley posted the security footage on social media to inform other restaurants of the attempted theft.
“It’s not that big of a deal, but being a small independent business guy, which a lot of the places are around here, every little bit counts,” Matley said.