Metro

Couple arrested for stealing gallons of used cooking oil

A New York couple was busted for allegedly siphoning hundreds of gallons of used cooking oil from Long Island restaurants, Suffolk County police said.

Domingo Santos, 40, and his girlfriend Vanessa Liriano, 31, were nabbed Sunday when an off-duty cop on his way to work around 8 a.m. spotted their van outside New Grand Buffet on Veterans Memorial Highway in Hauppauge, cops said.

The 2004 Ford van fit the description of a vehicle used in previous thefts of cooking oil throughout Long Island, cops said.

The officer went to the back of the restaurant where he saw Santos and Liriano stealing used cooking oil from an oil canister, cops said.

The couple from Yonkers had 650 gallons of stolen oil in their possession, which is typically refined and sold as bio-fuel. It was worth approximately $2,000, cops said.

The duo was charged with 16 counts of petit larceny, possession of stolen property, possession of burglars tools, and Santos was additionally charged with criminal possession of marijuana, police said.