Oil's well that ends well

OIL VEY!

A couple of greasy thieves have been charged with stealing 150 gallons of used cooking oil from an Old City restaurant Saturday morning, according to police.

At 6:08 a.m., an employee of Waste Oil Recyclers Inc. reported that someone had stolen waste oil from one of the company's containers at the rear of Buddakan on Chestnut Street near 4th, police said.

Authorities were able to obtain surveillance video of the theft that showed two men backing a white Ford van up to the waste-oil container. The men are then seen cutting the locks off of the container and pumping the waste oil from the storage container into their van's oil-pump system reservoir, where it is used as an ingredient in biofuel, police said.

Waste Oil Recyclers estimated that the 150 gallons of oil the men stole cost about $825.

Shortly after the theft was reported, officers stopped a van matching the description of the vehicle on 3rd Street and arrested two suspects. The identities of the suspected thieves have not yet been released, pending approval of criminal charges, police said.