Grease Thieves Target Restaurants

For months, we've heard about among area thieves. Now, believe it or not, it's cooking grease.

in Rock Hill is one of the latest casualties, according to an article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The restaurant has had hundreds of pounds of grease siphoned from a container behind the business since it opened in April.

Owner Bobby Tessler told the Post-Dispatch that the thefts have cost him about $2,000 in what a grease rendering company would have paid him.

And the Rock Hill business is not alone in its loss. The owner of D. Dooley's 026 Grill in Fenton told KTVI-TV that he has had his grease bin emptied seven times by thieves within the last year.

Meanwhile, KSDK-TV reported that two men who admitted to stealing grease from a St. Louis Chinese restaurant have been charged by the St. Louis Circuit Attorney.

Industry experts interviewed by KSDK say cooking grease can be processed and has value as a feed additive and biofuel.