WESTFIELD – They’ll steal anything these days.
Even used frying grease.
It is, perhaps, a testament to the ingenuity and resourcefulness of thieves that they can find a way to profit from almost anything and apparently used grease from deep fat fryers has sufficient value to be worth stealing.
City police report that Daniel Puza, proprietor of the Butcher Block, reported Friday morning that some time during the previous night thieves had cut locks securing the grease traps behind the store and stole the contents.
The used grease from the store’s ‘Fryolators’ is stored in the trap until it is collected by a rendering company which has commercial uses for the grease.
Puza said that, not only is this the first time used frying grease was stolen from him, it’s the first time he’s heard of it being stolen anywhere.
But, he said, when a representative the rendering company told him that his grease had been stolen, the worker also told him that similar grease was stolen from “seven or eight places in Westfield.”
He said that there are many uses for grease including bio-fuel and lubricants. “The grease nowadays is like gold” he said.
Officer William Ullrich responded to the complaint and reports that Puza said that he does not require a formal report but wants police to be aware of the issue. Ullrich reports that he notified the other city officers of the incident.
Ullrich also spoke with a representative of a local rendering company who said that the theft of frying grease is a problem not only in Westfield but throughout the region. He told Ullrich that thieves typically will pump out the contents of a grease trap and then sell the grease in another state.
