NYC thieves now stealing cooking grease

[abayridgeguy]

By MICHAEL GARTLAND/ Last Updated: 8:05 AM, June 10, 2012

City thieves are getting slipperier.

They’ve taken to ripping off the rancid cooking oil left at the curb by restaurants — as the list of strange “commodities” sought by sticky-fingered opportunists grows.
In a sputtering economy, the price of resale goods like cardboard, scrap metal, old appliances and even grease has spiked — and criminals have taken notice.
Used cooking oil cost next to nothing four years ago. Now it goes for 38 cents a pound. Cardboard and other paper goods went for about 1 cent a pound two years ago. Now it costs 6 cents.
“It’s really crazy out here with this grease,” said Eddie, a truck driver who picks up used oil in Brooklyn. “I went to one of my stops, and I actually saw a guy pumping grease out with a vacuum cleaner.”

Old refrigerators, washers and dryers might be more of a hassle to lift, but snatching them has also become increasingly common, according to Sanitation Department officials.
“When they stay out a day, people steal them,” said agency spokesman Vito Turso. And it’s illegal because, technically, the city owns recyclables once they’re put on the curb.
Cooking oil is typically left in drums or secure plastic containers outside restaurants, which are required by law to contract with a licensed carting company for disposal. The carter sells the grease to be recycled as biofuel, used in diesel engines.
As fuel prices surge, so do thefts by a new breed of oil-robber barons.

“We’ve experienced many break-ins since the first of the year,” said Edward Gunderson, president of M&E Soap, which picks up food oil in Brooklyn and Staten Island. “They can walk out with $200, $300 or $500 worth of material.”
Gunderson estimates he has lost 5 to 10 percent of his business in the past year because of theft.
Some of the thieves are rival companies, and others are random thieves.
“It’s an easy way to make a buck,” Gunderson said.

So are cardboard, copper piping, wire and other scrap metal.

Due to demand for paper in China, the price of used cardboard and paper has also ballooned. And with fewer Americans buying new appliances, the old ones are less likely to be tossed, kicking up demand.
Many people who steal cardboard are organized, according to Nick DiVittorio, who works for D&N Services, an Astoria, Queens-based carter.
“It’s worth money, and people are hurting, so they want to steal,” he said. “It’s between $1 million and $2 million a month that we’re losing.”
It’s also easier to justify stealing from a faceless company or city, as opposed to an individual, said John Jay College of Criminal Justice Professor Maki Haberfeld.

And New York City is certainly feeling that.

“We lost $1.6 million last year because of theft of the paper products,” Turso said.
Manhole covers might be the toughest commodity to boost and resell.
Andrew Modica was charged last month with stealing 14 covers to fuel his drug habit.
Mike Powers, owner of TNT Scrap Metal in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, said he would call the cops if someone tried to hawk him a sewer cap.
“We worked really hard to get a good business,” Powers said. “We’re not going to give that for a few dollars from stolen manhole covers.”

Desperate times

What thieves are stealing & resale price per pound

cooking grease 38 cents

manhole covers 15 cents

wrought-iron gates 12 cents

cardboard 6 cents

scrap metal (refrigerators, washers, dryers) 10 cents

[JennyH]

wtf this is stuff u hear about in third world countries

[Observateur]

wtf this is stuff u hear about in third world countries

Yes, but Third World poor do it small-scale -- enough to make a few cents and get by. These guys are doing it large-scale and with panel trucks and pumps, like a regular business.
Just hope they don't latch onto another Third World move: tapping into pipelines and fuel lines, with tragic, explosive results.

[Laertes607]

This happened on an episode of the Simpsons a while ago. homer and bart go into the grease business and try to steal grease from the elementary school ... LOL

I am sure some of here will deride as usual, but it is a case of life imitating art.

[beerman]

wait is it left at the curb for the DSNY /or privite Sanit. to pick up
Then is it really stealing
theu used to say if its on the curb. it belongs to the DSNY but not to sure about that anymore

[Observateur]

It's theft either way. Recyclables belong to DSNY as soon as they hit the curb. That includes cardboard and any mostly-metal bulk -- A/Cs, stoves, washer-dryers, refrigs, metal shelving, etc. Grease is containered and left for private companies that make money by recycling it.

As said earlier, this also isn't just a small-potatoes thing. You've got guys loading up trucks with stuff as if they're DSNY, or trespassing (and more) by sucking grease from traps before it's even containered.

[beerman]

but if people take it off the curb. thats less the DSNY bring to the land fill

[Observateur]

but if people take it off the curb. thats less the DSNY bring to the land fill

But these are recyclables, not just regular junk. NYC makes money by reselling the cardboard and metal.

[beerman]

and if by some chance a bottle winds up in your trash you get a nice little fine
let them take all they want. you ever see these people take collect all this stuff. they are trying to make a buck
why should KING MIKE make the money

[Alice]

and if by some chance a bottle winds up in your trash you get a nice little fine
let them take all they want. you ever see these people take collect all this stuff. they are trying to make a buck
why should KING MIKE make the money

My empty Guinness bottles feed several Asian families. It's like a franchise.

[Observateur]

and if by some chance a bottle winds up in your trash you get a nice little fine
let them take all they want. you ever see these people take collect all this stuff. they are trying to make a buck
why should KING MIKE make the money

Yes, but -- just scavenging-wise -- NYC doesn't care if someone on foot collects bottles/recyclables in a shopping cart or, obviously, takes nonrecyclables.

But there's a $2,000 fine ($5,000 for next occurence) if you're caught using a motor vehicle to take recyclables. That's because some people have turned this into a big, illegal, off-the-books business, even hiring crews to steal the stuff. It jeopardizes the recycling program by killing profits that cover and justify recycling (and it takes deposit containers from those folks who are just trying to get by).

I've seen guys travel around picking curbsides near-clean by loading piles of appliances and recyclables into unmarked vans and trucks -- a few times in BR but mostly in Manhattan. It's a big profitable deal in Manhattan, where highrises/businesses will put out multiple huge bags of deposit containers and loads of old appliances, metal stuff and shipping cardboard.

[north ridger]

Back to the point of the original article...it's about cooking grease. That isn't a DSNY item, there are businesses that collect used grease and they turn it into bio-diesel. That's why it's worth so much.

[Kitchop]

This makes me think of Bubbles and Johnny on The Wire.

[A_Malicous_Duck]

I've seen guys travel around picking curbsides near-clean by loading piles of appliances and recyclables into unmarked vans and trucks -- a few times in BR but mostly in Manhattan. It's a big profitable deal in Manhattan, where highrises/businesses will put out multiple huge bags of deposit containers and loads of old appliances, metal stuff and shipping cardboard.

yup, there is a crew that comes around everynight in a van they work up and down the blocks with carts collecting cans toss the bags in the van and move over a few blocks.