GREASE IS WORD FOR AREA THIEVES.

Byline: Lisa Van Proyen Daily News Staff Writer

It is on your french fries. It is on your burgers. It is grease, but to thieves, this goo is liquid gold.

So significant is this crime that a new law that took effect Jan. 1 allows CHP officers to search trucks without probable cause if they believe inedible kitchen grease is being illegally transported.

And perhaps nowhere else in Los Angeles is grease more of a hot commodity than the San Fernando Valley.

``The San Fernando Valley is the area that we're experiencing the largest theft of grease,'' said Ray Kelly, executive vice president of Baker Commodities, a grease collection company in Los Angeles that lost $250,000 to theft last year.

Each week, an average of 6,000 pounds of grease is stolen from the Valley area restaurants that Baker services, probably because of the high number of fast-food restaurants here, said Ed Murakami, vice president in charge of quality control at Baker Commodities.

Grease renderers and recycling companies lose millions of dollars a year to the thieves, officials said.

``It's a significant problem,'' said Douglas Hepper, a staff veterinarian with the meat and poultry inspection branch of the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

At the Lamplighter Restaurant, owner Martha Loranger said her two eateries in North Hollywood and Sherman Oaks are frequently hit by the thieves.

She knows they have struck when she does not receive a check from the rendering company for her used oil.

``It's on and off all the time. This year, the locks have been broken a lot. People are hard up for cash,'' she said. ``It's just like stealing anything.

``Just because it's grease doesn't mean it's any less of a thing.''

Mike Hamp, who owns a Johnny Rockets restaurant in Encino, said his place was hit by thieves about nine months ago - on the night before the legitimate hauler was scheduled to pick up his 50-gallon container filled to the rim with frying oil.

``It's crazy! At least it's not being wasted, but if you're not a legitimate company, then you shouldn't be involved in the oil,'' Hamp said.

Hitting restaurants at night, the thieves pump out gallons of the glop to later turn over to licensed grease haulers. The haulers typically pay the thieves about 4 cents a pound - or about a third of the 13-cent going rate for grease - once it's been recycled, industry officials said.

The legitimate licensed hauler then turns the grease over to collection sites that recycle it to sell worldwide as energy foods to cattle and poultry farms and feed mills, Hepper said.

The oil is also sold to businesses that produce shoe creme, rubber products, some cleaning compounds and dog food, Hepper said.

Four cents a pound might not sound like much, but multiply that by the 300 pounds that one busy McDonald's restaurant can produce every day, and it's not chump change. Especially if thieves hit a dozen places a night, Kelly said.

All the bandits need are a pickup truck and hydraulic lifter to steal 55-gallon grease barrels from smaller restaurants, said Ross Massey, a senior special investigator for the California Department of Food and Agriculture, which licenses legitimate grease renderers.

The more elaborate thieves, who often have worked for larger legitimate companies, may have equipment capable of pumping grease from 1,000- to 2,000-pound containers at bigger restaurants, Massey said.

``They come with torches and cut the lock off. This is how desperate they are,'' he said. ``No lock can prevent them from stealing.''

Since January 1995, it has been illegal for any unlicensed person to haul inedible kitchen grease. But the California Highway Patrol's hands were tied when it came to enforcing that law because grease theft was not specified in the vehicle code. The new law closes that loophole.

``It actually amends an existing law by adding inedible kitchen grease,'' Hepper said.

Now once a truck is stopped, the driver must show paperwork that proves he or she is licensed to transport the slick stuff, said Nanci Kramer, a CHP spokeswoman based in Sacramento.

If no license is produced, the driver faces a misdemeanor offense and up to a $1,000 fine per violation, imprisonment for up to a year or both, Kramer said. The second offense calls for a fine of up to $10,000 and one year in jail.

The next hurdle is familiarizing officers with the amendment and educating authorities about the seriousness of the offense, industry experts agreed.

The subject still draws laughs of disbelief from the public and law enforcement.

Officers say they have bigger fish to fry.

``They're usually more concerned about murders,'' Kelly said. ``They say, What do you mean they stole a barrel of grease?''

Massey prepares the grease theft cases to present to the District Attorney's Office on behalf of the state Department of Food and Agriculture and encounters skepticism.

``I take the grease to the DA's Office and they say, Grease? I have to be a real salesman to sell the case.''

CAPTION(S):

photo

PHOTO (color) Mike Hamp, manager of Johnny Rockets in Encino, lifts the lid of a cooking grease collection bin that has been the target of theft.

Michael Owen Baker/Daily News