Following a non-jury trial, the defendant was convicted of the theft of a quantity of used grease from behind a restaurant. In this appeal, his sole contention is that the evidence was insufficient to support a finding of guilt.

Testifying in his own behalf, the defendant admitted that he had driven his truck behind the restaurant at about 6:00 a.m. on the morning in question but denied having taken any grease. He said that he was working his regular grease route and was merely following his usual practice of checking out new locations to see if they had any grease which he might later offer to purchase. He stated that when he looked into the defendant's barrels they were already empty and explained that while stopped there he took advantage of the slope of the property to rearrange the barrels on his truck. This operation involved dropping the empty barrels to the ground, moving the full ones to the front of the vehicle, and using the lift to replace the empties on the back. Testifying in rebuttal, the victim contradicted the defendant's testimony that any significant slope existed behind the restaurant. Held:

Although the evidence against the defendant was purely circumstantial and although there was no evidence placing him in possession of the stolen property, we hold that sufficient evidence existed to enable a rational trier of fact to find him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. In addition to the extremely suspicious nature of the defendant's activities behind the apparently deserted restaurant at 6:00 a.m. on a foggy February morning, the trial judge was faced with conflicting testimony regarding the existence of the incline and, more importantly, evidence that the defendant had attempted following his arrest to make some sort of settlement with the victim. From all of this evidence, the trial court was authorized to conclude that the defendant's explanation was not credible and thus to find him guilty of theft. See generally Baker v. State, 123 Ga. App. 394 (181 SE2d 288) (1971). Compare Williams v. State, 126 Ga. App. 350 (190 SE2d 785) (1972).

B. Thomas Conger, for appellant.