Dec. 27—WILKES-BARRE TWP. — Two men from New York were charged with stealing cooking oil from the Wendy’s Restaurant on Schechter Drive early Wednesday morning.

Police in Wilkes-Barre Township responded to the restaurant at about 2 a.m. when an employee, waiting across the street for a ride after he closed the eatery, encountered the two men identified in court records as Elvyn Garcia-Reyes, 31, and Miguel A. Santoya-Reyes, 31, both from New Rochelle.

Police said Garcia-Reyes and Santoya-Reyes used a moving truck with tanks installed in the cargo area they filled with cooking oil using pumps, court records say.

A large number of rubber gloves were found inside the truck and near the restaurant’s tanks used to store cooking oil.

Santoya-Reyes told police there were no signs prohibiting the theft of cooking oil, court records say.

The employee told police he closed the restaurant and walked across the street to wait for a ride when he heard the sound of a motor or pump, and encountered the moving van behind the eatery.

Police in court records say Garcia-Reyes and Santoya-Reyes were charged in North Brunswick, NJ, with theft of cooking oil on Dec. 7.

Garcia-Reyes and Santoya-Reyes had a strong odor of cooking oil and oily hands when they were arrested, police stated.

Garcia-Reyes and Santoya-Reyes were arraigned by District Judge Joseph Spagnuolo of Plains Township on felony charges of theft and criminal conspiracy and a misdemeanor count of possessing instruments of crime. They were jailed at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility for lack of $75,000 bail, each.

The moving truck was seized by police.