This Dude Was Arrested for Stealing Hundreds of Gallons of Grease From Burger King

This isn't exactly the work of Danny Ocean, but it there's a less-than-legit market for restaurant grease out there. That's in part because of its use in the biofuel industry. It's in high demand and the prices of biodiesel have risen. Alvaro Mendez Flores was apprehended and confessed to stealing hundreds of gallons of grease from a Burger King in Annandale, Virginia. 

The National Renderers Association estimates it collects around 4.4 billion pounds of used grease annually from restaurants across the US and Canada. The demand is high. Mendez Flores says he was getting paid 25 cents per gallon. He could turn that into $300-$400 on each heist. 

In April, he was caught by police and seen on a surveillence camera using a siphon and generator to pump grease from a grease dumpster into a 1,600-gallon tank he brought to Burger King in the middle of the night, reports the Associated Press. Flores also reportedly was stealing from restaurants across the area. 

Under more desirable circumstances, restaurants hire a service to haul their grease away and sell it for them. An attorney for one of those services told WJLA that over his seven years on the job he has seen hundreds of grease heists. So, don't blow it off when you see someone elbow-deep in a grease dumpster at night. Now you know the assumption that no one would ever get in there unless that had to is wrong.

h/t The Takeout

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