Two Reading men are facing charges for stealing used cooking oil and selling it.

Used cooking oil is commonly collected and then sold by restaurants to be converted to biodiesel.

Jeremick Ruiz Rodriguez, 23, and Victor Martinez Peralta, 18, allegedly arrived at Hardwood Cafe during the early morning of July 30 and broke the metal lockout tags on a large storage container behind the restaurant, located along Route 8. According to police, they then loaded about $1,400 worth of the cooking oil into the large Penske truck they were driving. They later sold it for $200 to a man in Reading.

A third unidentified man was also involved in the theft, police said.

Rodriguez was charged Tuesday, Aug. 12, with one misdemeanor count each of theft and criminal conspiracy; and Peralta was charged with misdemeanor theft and ungraded criminal conspiracy.

Police said Peralta was the driver and confessed to the crime when contacted by phone. According to police, he said the three had bought machines at Harbor Freight to suck oil out of used oil storage containers, but he had just met the other two men and did not have their information.

Police received a message from Rodriguez the next day admitting to planning to steal the cooking oil and sell it. Police said the third unidentified man also contacted police, but gave false information.

Police followed up with Buffalo Biodiesel, a New York-based company that refines used cooking oil and turns it into biofuel. The company takes the oil and gives the restaurant a residual check.

The company has a tab on its website warning of potential oil thefts and for employees to watch the area around oil drums for suspicious activity.

“If ‘Buffalo Biodiesel’ is not plastered all over a truck that is collecting oil from you, then you are being robbed,” the website said.

Police found about $1,400 in used cooking oil was stolen and about $10 in damage was caused to the restaurant’s oil bin when the lockout tags were broken.

Preliminary hearings for Rodriguez and Peralta have yet to be scheduled.