Grease Thieves are on a Slippery Slope
In recent weeks, we've reported on the many indignities restaurant owners face. We've seen McDonald's get sued because a lady wanted to pay with her feet. We've seen drive-thru workers pelted with airborne sodas. But when they start stealing our grease... it's time to call in the Texas Rangers.
Texas and Oklahoma are the "hotbed of grease thieves."
The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that the rising price of ethanol and increasing popularity of biodiesel fuel have spurred more people to take grease from traps behind restaurants to convert it to biodiesel or sell it on the black market. (There's a grease black market?) This has led one company to employ a former Texas Ranger and a former Texas cop to track down those slippery characters stealing restaurant grease, which can cost restaurants thousands of dollars per week.
Grease thieves will often sneak behind restaurants at night, break the locks on containers and spill grease everywhere, said Findley, who has worked for Griffin Industries for 16 years. Thieves will often make off with 1,500 pounds of grease in one haul and sell it for between 10 and 15 cents a pound...
Texas and Oklahoma have been the hotbed of grease thieves for most of the past 20 years...
The new breed of grease thieves pose an even more insidious threat.
According to the article:
A new type of grease thief has emerged in recent years. Average people concerned more about fuel efficiency than the street value of grease have been caught pilfering grease traps, Findley said.
Biodiesel conversion kits have encouraged people to steal grease to run their car on it, he said. Many think they are entitled to the grease.
"This is a recent phenomenon. These people are the worst kind of thief," Findley said. "They don't know they are stealing. The Internet is replete with how to make this stuff. They have no idea what they are doing."
But these people can find themselves behind bars with serious theft charges, Findley said.
If you don't steal restaurant grease, don't start. If do steal grease, it's time to come clean. You really don't want to be in prison and have to answer when the inmates ask: "What are you in for?"
Read the whole article: Restaurant grease thefts increase in number, company says
- Franchise topic:
According to a report in the Springfield News-Leader, catalytic converters are the hot ticket among light-fingered miscreants. Why? Because the emissions-control devices contain valuable elements including platinum, which can be removed and sold off. I do hope that my Subaru catalytic converter will not be stolen, I just installed recently, I can’t afford another replacement…So, keep an eye with your cats...not only that, i also keep an on guard status on other auto parts of mine like my Lexus wheel bearing and the like for more precautionary moves...
isn't in the 'garbage'. In the same sense that we have garbage cans and a dumpster outside of our business, but we also have waste-oil containers that store our used oil until we use them in our waste oil furnace. Every gallon of waste oil we use, saves us not only disposal costs but an enormous amount of heating costs in the winter. To steal this 'waste oil' is akin to stealing money from our cash register.
When I was young, my parents owned two meat markets and we had 'fat cans' which is where you stored the excess trim. This was back in the days before the grocery store butchers just had packaged portions brought in for them to slice up and wrap, so there was a lot of fat and bones. Now we actually got paid for that fat and bones.............it was used in dog foods and other things.
Lisha
Rhino Super Center
Lisha
Rhino Super Center
Thieves are indeed everywhere. We have to keep the old catalytic converters locked inside with the proper documentation just to keep them from being stolen. They are indeed valuable. We had a car in just yesterday that someone had tried to saw the converter off as it sat in a parking lot overnight. We've also had to replace some for local car lots that have had them taken during the night. We've even had to fence in our scrap metal as people come in to steal it. There is value in it as well but we have a deal with a guy who hauls off our used tires and cardboard so we want to make sure it's kept for him.
Lisha
Rhino Super Center
Lisha
Rhino Super Center
Some people will steal a hot stove.
Not far from here live a colony of FEMAzoids - refugees living on gubmint largesse in old run down apartment blocks. Now everybody knows that, and you would think that the information would deter garage sales/yard sales. Nope.
You know you're a rednexk if you hold a garage sale a few blocks away from a FEMAzoid colony. You can't have a garage sale here no more less'n somebody sits out in the yard with a shotgun all day.
The FEMAzoids come round pretending they're interested in buying something or other. In fact they are just casing the neighborhood, intending to return and steal stuff. They also try to peek inside homes to see if there's stuff in there that they might like.
Bein who I am, and with my abnormal mind running at full throttle all the time, it recently occurred to me that I need to git with somebody who knows how to franchise "concepts" so we can devise a "Safe Yard/Garage Sale" management franchise.
The yard/garage sale "industry" is reliably estimated at $ 4,000,000,000 a year and is estimated to be growing at an annual rate of 8.67 %, with some areas of the country growing faster than others.
We would have a slick brochure in which we point out that garage sale crime is on the rise, and that preservation of garage sale inventory value plus the added value of safe homes make Safe Garage Sale management one of the hottest concepts in the USA. We would have police like videos of FEMAzoids being arrested inside people's homes with used mixmasters still under their arms and milk moustaches from robbing the ice box too. Police officers could be portrayed in the videos saying that communities actually reduce crime and save on taxes for police overtime by signing on to safe garage sale management contracts for an annual program of safe garage sale and peripheral activities protection services.
Our franchisees would be in business for themselves, but not by themselves. We would save them at least 50 % of start up expenses and risk through our unique system of training and advert promotion. It would be a business you could operate from home, with no office expense and only a small budget for the care and feeding of the Safe Garage Sale Rotweiler. This presents cross promotion opportunities with the Rotweiler Breeders Association, a whole additional revenue stream that no other Garage Sale management organization can provide.
The obvious wealth opportunity in this franchise would make any due diligence unnecessary, saving thousands of dollars on loudmouth lawyers who claim they can spot scams. We could have a Mexican outlaw movie star say on the video "We don need no stinking due diligence."
This franchise can be expanded to Meineke shop franchisees and others who have to suffer theft of valuable materials from their businesses by others than their franchisors. Grease trap thieves represent a whole additional opportunity for exploitation once you get up and operating in your exciting new business in which you will be your own boss.
WE DON'T SELL FRANCHISES. WE AWARD FRANCHISES!
SEAMUS IGNATIUS MULDOON
www.FranchiseRemedies.com
Richard Solomon, FranchiseRemedies.com, has over 45 years experience with franchise litigation and crisis management. He is a graduate of The Citadel and The University of Michigan Law School
From what I understand, their new contract even has a provision for collecting royalties based on any insurance benefits they received. This idea appears to have come from those hurricane benefits that Meineke didn't get a piece of. Of course, they didn't pay the insurance premiums either, but I'm sure that's not an issue for them. And of course, they're not going to even factor in the reality that the shops surrounding the evacuation areas were absolutely flooded with additional business that they received royalties on...................but they smelled another dollar and an idea was born.
Lisha
Rhino Super Center
Lisha
Rhino Super Center
I have no smpathy for franchisees who sign agreements that disaster insurance benefits will be subject to royalties. That is so much beyond reasonable that the franchisees must recognize that as a "to the barricades" issue and all refuse to sign until that is removed.
I know what gets triggered if there is a refusal to renew, but if no one will sign up for that, the triggers probably won't be used and the result will probably be the removal of that provision.
Isn't it great that such agreements get the AAFD fair franchising certification!
Richard Solomon
www.FranchiseRemedies.com
Richard Solomon, FranchiseRemedies.com, has over 45 years experience with franchise litigation and crisis management. He is a graduate of The Citadel and The University of Michigan Law School
....that this 'new' contract is one reason that they asked for the 1 year extension on their fair franchising seal renewal. Of course, that has also expired and still no word on if the 'new' contract meets the standards or not. Of course, that doesn't stop the AAFD of still touting Meineke as holding this seal of excellence.
Things that make you go HMMMMMMMMMMMMM.
Lisha
Rhino Super Center
Lisha
Rhino Super Center
STANDARD 9.4 INSURABLE LIABILITIES. The franchisor should make reasonable efforts to identify appropriate insurance coverage of risks of liability. A franchise agreement should require adequate insurance coverage for such risks and a fair and reasonable allocation of the costs of such coverage. Where pplicable, both parties should be named insured’s.
No points awarded for an insurance policy that would treat a liability risk as akin to gross sales.
Michael Webster PhD LLB
Franchise News
Michael Webster, a franchisee attorney in Toronto, Ontario, publishes a website on business opportunities and franchises called "The BizOp News"
Lisha, Richard... this thread is about Grease Thieves.
Please try to keep it on topic; although given the heading "Grease Thieves" we could always discuss vendor kickbacks ;)
Paul Steinberg, Franchisee Attorney, New York City, Ph: 212-529-5400
without mentioning the M-word?
OK....OK.....I'll try and do better.
Lisha
Rhino Super Center
Lisha
Rhino Super Center
...it was right here just a few comments ago...
Sean
IdeaFarm, Franchise Pick
seankelly@ideafarm.net
IdeaFarm, Franchise Pick
Franchisor Marketing