Thieves make off with hundreds of gallons of cooking oil from Athens Chick-fil-A

By Joe Johnson

Thieves recently stole over 100 gallons of used cooking oil from a fast-food restaurant on the west side of Athens.

According to Athens-Clarke County police, the incident occurred at about 3 a.m. Oct. 5 at Chuck-fil-A on Atlanta Highway where the thieves cut the lock if the back gate where the grease trap is located and siphoned the oil into a U-Haul that apparently had one or more containers inside.

ACCPD Lt. Jody Thompson said the thieves drove away with several hundred gallons of oil valued at thousands of dollars.

"It can be refined and sold and it can be used as fuel," the officer said. "There are several different markets for the oil that recyclers can utilize,"