Grease bandits strike as biofuel demand
rises
As the price of this waste product and
biodiesel ingredient has risen, so have thefts.
By Ben Arnoldy | Staff writer of The Christian Science
Monitor
from the May 6, 2008 edition
San Jose, Calif. - Mark Rosenzweig watched with suspicion as a tanker
truck sidled up to a local Burger King's grease bin last month. The driver
plunged a hose into the 300-gallon tub of used French-fry grease and slurped
it into his tank.
Mr. Rosenzweig called the police, patiently citing legal codes to convince
them that, yes, grease theft is a crime. He should know. As a legitimate
grease collector, he has his livelihood stolen four to five times a month
these days.
In March, grease bandits in South Bend, Ind., broke bin locks to get to
their oozy booty. One collector, Griffin Industries Inc., has two detectives
working cases in Kentucky, Texas, Florida, Missouri, and against an entire
grease gang in northern Arkansas.
Grease is a traded commodity like gold or pork bellies, and its price has
tripled in the past two years – leading to increased theft. The reason:
Grease can be used to make bio-diesel and has seen the same price spike as
corn and other biofuel inputs.
"We monitor grease theft on a regular basis. Right now it's a big issue,"
says Christopher Griffin, director of legal affairs for Griffin Industries
Inc. in Cold Spring, Ky. The company collects raw grease in 20 states and
boils and filters it into "yellow grease," which is what is used to make
biodiesel.
Yellow grease is becoming liquid gold. It now trades on US commodities
markets for 32 cents per pound, up from a low of 12 cents in 2006, according
to data from The Jacobsen website.
"People who were not in the industry in 2006 are seeing this is a
moneymaker," says Mr. Griffin. The trouble for these grease greenhorns, he
says, is that there's no free grease anymore – it's all under contract. "So
those people, if they can't get the volume of grease they want, then they
will just steal it."
Rosenzweig's call brought five policemen, who arrested the alleged thief,
David Richardson. He did not have a California permit to collect or haul
grease. Reports say his 4,000-gallon tank was half full and he planned to
sell it for $1.35 a gallon, meaning he stood to make roughly several
thousand dollars.
When grease was much cheaper, restaurants here and around the country would
often have to pay to have the grease removed from outdoor bins. Now that
yellow grease fetches a good price, Rosenzweig doesn't charge his clients –
some services even pay the restaurant. There's strong competition for
contracts.
"Everybody gets a kick out of it, thinks it's funny – 'Oh, how weird that
somebody would steal it'. But it's a serious crime, and it hurts all of the
reputable guys," says Rosenzweig. He estimates he can lose a couple hundred
dollars for every full container. "You lose enough of those every week, or
every month, and it starts to hurt."
Just who owns the grease can be a slippery legal question, according to
Houston attorney Jon Jaworski. He's defended clients in more than 150 grease
cases and refers to himself as "the grease lawyer."
For years, grease was put out in barrels next to the trash and picked up
by verbal agreement. After a court ruling found that arrangement to be a
free-for-all, he says, collectors drew up written contracts and provided
branded bins. Collection companies say that once the grease hits the
container, it's theirs.
"It's really a question mark to me," says Mr. Jaworski. "Do they own the
grease because it's put in the container, or do they own the grease at the
end of the month when they pay the restaurant?"
He's defended several dozen cases in court and lost only one, he says. He
started making clients promise to clean up before coming to his office after
one visitor tracked dark footprints on his carpet and stained a chair. The
smell didn't leave until three weeks and a fumigation later.
"Juries are amazed by the time and effort put in to try to convict people
for stealing stuff that is rancid," Jaworski says.
Larry Findley, a former San Antonio policeman, has spent 17 years pursuing
poachers for Griffin. He says they run the gamut from poor immigrants who
are given a pickup, some barrels, and a bucket by a middleman, to organized
rings with their own tanker trucks.
And now, there's also well-meaning people taking grease to make biodiesel at
home. Christopher Griffin of Griffin Industries notes that media love to
highlight the local environmentalist who makes bio-fuel. One such report
showed a professor getting grease from a Griffin-marked bin.
"You've got people who never considered being a thief out there taking
grease thinking it's OK. So now it's really spiking," says Mr. Findley.
Stopping hard-core grease grabbers is tricky, because they usually strike at
night. Findley and his colleague, a retired Texas Ranger, use police
surveillance techniques. They've even persuaded a thief to wear a hidden mic
to nail his buyer.
The detective duo has put two thieves into the penitentiary. More common are
fines of $500 to $1000 and a few days in jail. A third conviction can draw
sentences of nine months to a year.
Word spreads quickly as far as 500 miles away after any crackdown. But
rather than stop, the thieves often just take from different companies or go
to different states.
"Once they get into it, it's really hard to turn them," says Findley, who
notes he sometimes deals with third-generation grease thieves. "It's almost
embarrassing as someone in law enforcement to say that the best you can
almost hope for is to move them."
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