— and the grease you cooked them in.
It used to be considered waste, and restaurant owners had to pay to have it carted off. But with the popularity of biofuels, frying oils used in food production have become a commodity. Now people pay the restaurateurs to let them haul it off.
So, of course, now that cooking grease has a value, it’s subject to theft. A couple of Detroit-area thieves have found themselves in hot, um… oh let’s just say water after trying to grease their palms with the oil of a local restaurant, as told in this story from the Detroit News.