A private investigator is looking into why cooking oil thefts are up across Long Island.
Private investigator Patrick McCall says more than 5,000 Long Island restaurants have had their cooking oil stolen in the past 10 months.
Police recently caught a Queens man who allegedly stole cooking oil from a Chick-Fil-A in Huntington Station. Police say the suspect siphoned the cooking oil into a rental truck and then resold it.
Two suspects were arrested Saturday for stealing cooking oil from nine restaurants across Nassau County.
McCall says the oil can be reprocessed into renewable diesel or biodiesel fuel and sold on the black market.