The man wasn’t looking for cash or electronics, but something stranger: used cooking grease. Cooking grease can be turned into the fuel, creating a surprisingly lucrative black market for a substance most people wouldn’t touch. The National Renderers Association estimates that up to $75 million worth of old cooking grease is stolen each year. “It’s at the top of the oddest things I’ve seen stolen so far.”Restaurants typically contract with a rendering company to haul off cooking grease. After taking the grease, Mendez Flores told detectives, he returned to Richmond and turned the truck over to his boss.

Source: Washington Post April 18, 2019 17:21 UTC