Two men arrested at Northwoods Mall for allegedly stealing cooking oil from tank
North Charleston police arrested two men after mall security reported they were siphoning cooking oil from an oil tank at Northwoods Mall early Monday morning.
North Charleston Police stopped a white work van around 1:45 a.m. after mall security reported two suspects siphoning cooking oil from an oil trap at Northwoods Mall. Officers said the driver and passenger were covered in grease, admitted to stealing oil for about two weeks and claimed they were paid roughly $3 per gallon, earning about $5,000; surveillance showed them using a cutting wheel to break into the tank. The suspects, 26-year-old Gadiel Gonzales Rodriguez of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and 35-year-old Javier Ivan Gonzales Espinal of Reading, Pennsylvania, were charged with Breaking into Tanks and taken to the Al Cannon Detention Center.