Domingo Santos, 40, and his girlfriend, Vanessa Liriano, have been charged in a novel criminal case. They are accused of stealing about 650 gallons of used cooking oil from restaurants.
Used cooking oil can be sold for bio fuel. However, like many recycling operations, you need great quantities to make a lot of money. The 650 gallons would fetch around $2000.
Police say that Santos was spotted withdrawing used cooking oil from a canister behind the New Grand Buffet. He recognized that his car matched the description of the car used in other oil thefts. The couple is now charged with 16 counts, including petit larceny, and possession of stolen property and burglary tools.
If they had watched the Simpsons, they would have seen the corruptive influence of oil theft:
Source: FOXNY
goggling ‘used cooking oil price’
shows 75 cents a gallon
Places used to have to pay to have it hauled off
now its a sell-able
http://biowillie.com/bw/
Word is that they used it as body lotion. Ever had sex with a deep-fried chicken leg?
Waste products can become byproducts quickly and vice versa, I might add. Right now if you show up on Friday to my house in NJ and steal my recyclables, you’re not stealing anything from me. Do the same thing to a house in NY (though they likely don’t leave them at the curb) where there are deposits, and now you’re stealing something that has value to the household.
It’s big business…. Some street crimes are profitable….
You don’t need large quantities to run a deisil mercedes; just fill up the tank if the vehicle is tweeked to use that fuel. You do need permision, however.
This illustrious couple should have employed an emulsifier to hide the used cooking oil. They might have made authorities believe they had Hollandaise Sauce.
Since OIL will not mix with WATER, after a brief period of time, the valuable used cooking oil would have separated (the discrete, dark oil would have floated on the water) from the water and the couple could have skimmed the oil off and sold it on the black market.
Used cooking OIL will not mix with WATER because OIL and WATER will not mix, unless they are TEMPORARILY EMULSIFIED with third component. Once the EMULSIFIED product REVERTS to its original, stable states, the oil is separated and available for removal.
This guy might benefit from not taking meth.
Theft is theft and if anything becomes attractive as a source of an easy steal and a quick sell for money it will be taken by the criminal element.
There is a big problem in Eastern WA and other locations where irrigation system wiring is being stolen at epidemic levels. It is costly for the farmer to replace. Copper theft is especially problematic. When fuel prices rose gas thefts did also but not very much because there is no real resale market in a tank of gas though there have been isolated incidents where truckloads were stolen. The attraction is often high enough were some thieves where zapped from trying to steal hot wires.
One guy nearly won a Darwin award because he tried to steal gas for a farmer’s gas pump. The farmer locked the pump with a padlock. Idiot criminal tried to remove the lock with a cutting torch. Fortunately the hose and the lines were not primed with fuel or we might have a crispy critter to deal with the next morning.
What is the cumulative taxes on a gallon of diesel fuel?
Something like 40%? Or am I off about that?
In either case compare the cost of a gallon of diesel fuel at the pump, to the cost of non-food grade soybean oil. I believe the soybean wins.
“I believe the soybean wins.”
OK, on price maybe. But if you dump cooking oil in your truck you may have a hard time getting started.
By the time you buy the parts to modify your truck to run on cooking oil, or the chemicals to process cooking oil to run in an unmodified truck you might decide to just pay the tax.
As long as they have diesel in the pumps at the gas station, I think I will sell the surplus cooking oil to the re processing facility and buy the diesel. It may be a little more expensive but it is a lot less work, and maybe more reliable as well.
Wonder if these trash trolls lawyered up. Possible plea, EPA standards.
Unless its marked, this case should get tossed.
Btw, everyone pays for trash pickup. So does that rule out police collection?
BFM, I agree w/ your assessment. As a PI, I have exercised my Constitutional right to garbology, taking people’s trash on the curb for background gathering. But, items that are clearly trash are the ONLY items I could legally take. I got smart in my older years and now will seek out the garbage man and have him just put the trash aside for me. Saves having to get up @ 4am. But trust me, garbology is no fun. I did a case in a rural Wi. area. I took trash and learned that the person was having septic problems and were having to throw away their used toilet paper!
Who said PI’s don’t earn their money? Now that is dedication.
Haz, You have a criminal mind. I always thought you might have some meth cooker in your blood.
“If you leave your used cooking oil outside near your dumpster does it not fall under the same provisions that if thrown out it is a freebie for anyone coming along?”
Doesn’t that depend on whether the item is abandoned? If you throw it in the trash then it might indeed be a freebie for anyone coming along. If it is a barrel waiting for collection and transportation to the recycling plant, for which the owner is paid a fee, then probably not.
Being outside in a relatively insecure location does not make the item a freebie – it might indicate the owner is a fool – but freebie? no.
bfm – however, the defense for this couple might be that they assumed it was abandoned and therefore available for the taking.
Long Island is Pirate Territory. Listen to them talk. Fly over and flush.
I would employ the Outback Defense.
Most restaurants have to pay someone to pick up their used oil. These folks were doing it for free. Geesh. Arresting someone for doing a good deed.
If you leave your used cooking oil outside near your dumpster does it not fall under the same provisions that if thrown out it is a freebie for anyone coming along?
Hmmm….what would a couple from Long Island do with 650 gallons of used cooking oil? A quick glance at the Homesteading Today forum gives some possibilities.
Filtered and refined, it can be used in older diesel engines.
It can be used for trapping raccoons.
Mixed with dog (or other animal) food.
Fed to pigs.
Used in chicken roosts if one’s chickens have leg mites.
Used to control dust on gravel roads.
Used in emergency lamp oil.
Soap making.
Used as ant bait, when mixed with a little boric acid.
I dunno. While the Long Island Couple doesn’t appear to be very agrarian or homestead-y, there must be other possibilities, And heisting 650 gallons is a serious effort that requires a sizable tank for transporting the oil.
Interestingly, the manufacture of methamphetamine requires a fair amount heat, and law enforcement might sometimes wonder just what a person is doing with all that kerosene or propane out there in the shack in the woods. Using pilfered oil to fuel a generator to generate electricity to heat cooktops, etc is a way to provide heat without the source of the heat being tracked by the man.
Or maybe they just need cash so they sold it to the Russian soapmaking mafia. Or something.
In addition to selling the oil, once filtered to the proper cleanliness, we can use it in our Diesel powered vehicles eliminating the @ $4/gallon cost of fuel and the evidence……;-)