When the cooking oil gets used and useless to 5 Guys Burgers in North Bergen, they put it out behind the restaurant, in two containers, owned by a private company that picks it up.
North Bergen police arrested these two New York men for bringing their own van, suction pump, and container, to siphon the oil for themselves.
Youngil Kim and Byung Ho Choi are charged with theft and its serious, as old, cold, cooking oil has become a new and hot commodity.
What's brewing is old cooking oil becoming fuel.
"They were paying to have it taken away and thought, wait, we can make the fuel," said Rich Ferguson of Cedar Crest Village.
Cedar Crest Retirement Community invested in oil conversion equipment and began collecting old cooking oil from the four restaurants onsite.
Cedar Crests runs its entire fleet of shuttles on the fuel it makes.
While we're paying $2.50 and more per gallon for gas and diesel, Cedar Crest's homemade fuel works out to be 54¢ a gallon, a cleaner, greener gallon.
North Bergen police say that's why the men were stealing the oil, and that they'd been seen behind the restaurant before, this time, someone called police.
