VILLA RICA, Ga.,None — Now that cooking oil can be used as fuel, thieves are going after it.
Two men were caught on tape pumping out barrels of used cooking oil from the back of a Carroll County fried chicken restaurant.
The owner told Channel 2's Diana Davis he believes the crooks will be back
At Villas Rica's Big Chic they go through hundreds of gallons of cooking oil. The used oil is stored out back where it's picked up for recycling into fuel.
"The guy, whenever I get them full, I call him and he'll come pick it up, and each barrel holds about 55 gallons," Roger Fuller , the owner of the Big Chic Restaurant, told Davis.
Over the weekend two men driving a white box truck helped themselves to the restaurant's oil and it was caught on camera.
The big truck, once labeled, "Pacific Moving and Storage," now has the "P" and "C" faded away.
The tape shows the truck initially pulling up to a Mexican restaurant then backing away when the crooks find only grease. Then the driver and another man help themselves to the pure vegetable oil in the Big Chic's barrels. It's pumped out in less than eight minutes.
http://bcove.me/haw547sj
Fuller told Davis he gets about $1.57 per gallon from the recycler for the oil, which means the oil thieves got away with about $300 worth of oil.
Fuller's said he thinks the theft of his barrels is just one of many.
"They can get more for it if they know who to sell if to, and I'm sure they do, because the way they truck looked to me it was set up, this is a way of life for them," Fuller said.
Villa Rica police said the money can add up quickly.
"If they're going around to other restaurants and hitting four to five a night, it could easily be from a $1,000 to $1,500 a night they are taking," Capt. Keith Shaddix of the Villa Rica Police Department said.
Anyone who recognizes the truck is asked to call Villa Rica police at 770-459-7000.
WSBTV
