Two Men Arrested for Stealing Cooking Oil at Northwoods Mall
Police say surveillance showed suspects using a cutting wheel to break into an oil tank and siphon cooking oil over about two weeks, netting roughly $5,000.
North Charleston Police arrested 26-year-old Gadiel Gonzales Rodriguez of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and 35-year-old Javier Ivan Gonzales Espinal of Reading, Pennsylvania early Aug. 10 after mall security reported two men siphoning cooking oil from an oil trap at Northwoods Mall. Officers stopped a white work van around 1:45 a.m., found the men and the vehicle covered in grease and smelled of cooking oil; surveillance allegedly showed them using a cutting wheel to break into the tank. The suspects admitted stealing oil for about two weeks, said they were paid roughly $3 per gallon and estimated they made about $5,000; both were charged with breaking into tanks and taken to the Al Cannon Detention Center.