Police are urging restaurant owners to check for tampering after arresting two men for stealing used cooking oil in Fruitland.  Police say in the early morning hours of July 27, officers were checking on a local restaurant when they found a white van behind the business. Police say Cesar Alfonso Ramirez Mendez and Elian Enrique Mendez Para, both 25 from Staten Island and Long Island, New York were syphoning used cooking oil from the restaurant into a makeshift tank in the rear of the van.  Officers say the lock to the oil container had been cut and the men had acquired a large amount of cooking oil. Police say they believe the men had committed the same theft in other restaurants on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.  Anyone who owns a restaurant on the Eastern Shore of Maryland are urged to check their used oil systems. Any tampering should be reported to local police. Police say it  may be beneficial to install a security camera and clearly mark that the area is under constant surveillance. 

With the excessive heat the area has experienced this summer, a local group is feeling the effect.  According to Pastor James Diggs, who is board president and winter shelter director for The Samaritan Group of Kent County, heat waves this summer are adding to already alarming increases over the past year in the cost of living including food, gas, utility bills and rent.  The organization has already dispensed all of the assistance funds for all of 2026.  Without the additional funds, they will have no choice but to suspend their Emergency Housing fund at the end of July.  For more information about the organization, visit samaritangroupofkentcounty.org.