MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. — The Martin County Sheriff's Office said a 24-year-old Miami man stopped at 20 restaurants on the Treasure Coast looking for used cooking oil.
Used cooking oil is used to make biodiesel fuel and is part of a multi-billion dollar industry, MCSO said.
Martin County Sheriff's Office deputies said on Tuesday, they followed Yadriel Luis Zaragoza to at least 20 restaurants including some in Stuart.
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Zaragoza is wanted in another Florida county in connection to used cooking oil thefts. Detectives said none of the establishments Zaragoza stopped at gave permission for anyone to tamper with their oil storage containers.
After conducting surveillance, deputies performed a traffic stop on Zaragoza in Jensen Beach and found two crowbars and a bolt cutter inside his car.
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Zaragoza told deputies he was on his way to Orlando when his GPS somehow directed him to get off in Martin County, the arrest affidavit said. Detectives said they conducted surveillance on Zaragoza for an hour and he did not dine at any of the restaurants, but could not explain why he stopped at the restaurants.
Zaragoza faces a charge of possession of burglary tools.
He is also a suspect in the theft of more than 300 gallons of used cooking oil from a restaurant in Monroe County, deputies said.
