Used Cooking Oil Reported Stolen from Noroton Heights Restaurant

About 100 gallons of used cooking oil was reported stolen from a container outside Jimmy’s Southside Restaurant at 340 Heights Road.

The theft of the grease (also known as “yellow grease”) was reported at 10:38 a.m., Friday, Feb. 24, after an employee of a service that buys the grease, or used cooking oil, from restaurants for recycling. The 100 gallons was valued at $100.

The company picks up the oil once every two weeks from an outdoor container that’s supposed to be secure. At 9:30 that morning, the employee discovered a lock missing and the grease removed. The last time the cooking oil had been picked up was Feb. 10.

Police asked the management of other businesses in the area if they knew of anything suspicious in the vicinity over the past two weeks, but no one did.

Reports of used cooking oil thefts have come from other cities and towns in the area. The thefts typically take place in the early morning hours, when no one is around.

In Darien, the last reported theft came on Nov. 21, 2016, when employees at Darien Diner saw a van go behind next-door Lithos restaurant. That incident resulted in the arrest of two men, each charged with larceny and attempted larceny. The Darienite.com article on that incident has more background information on cooking oil thefts.