ARLINGTON, Va. -- Two men have been charged in connection to a cooking-oil theft after Arlington County police officers caught the duo siphoning waste oil from the Ballston Common Mall last week. According to Clarendon Patch, Fa De Zheng, 36, of Oxon Hill, Md., and Ming Gang Lu, 38, of New York City, face charges of grand larceny, grand larceny with the intent to sell, possession of burglary tools and destruction of property.
Which such thefts may seem bizarre, they aren't uncommon. As The New York Times reported in 2008:
The suspects in a growing number of grease infractions fall into a range of categories, people interviewed on the matter said, as grease theft is a crime of opportunity. They include do-it-yourself environmentalists worried about their carbon footprints, warring waste management firms trying to beat each other on the sly, and petty thieves who are profiting from the oilâs rising value on the black market.And the problem may be getting worse. (Read more...)
