Grease is the way we are stealing in northern Virginia

ANNANDALE, Va. — Police said a central Virginia man made off with a whopper of a haul from Burger King: hundreds of gallons of used cooking grease.

But he couldn’t give police the slip and now faces grand larceny charges.

News outlets reported Alvaro Mendez Flores of Richmond admitted to the April 4 theft. Court documents state Mendez Flores backed up his box truck to the grease dumpster at the Annandale Shopping Center and used a hose to begin siphoning the used oil into a 1,600-gallon tank.

Cooking grease can be used to make biodiesel fuel. Grease thefts have increased as biodiesel prices have risen. Police noted six such thefts in Fairfax County over the past year.

Mendez Flores told police he would get paid 25 cents a gallon for the stolen oil.