..to think that the London Marathon water theives should be named and shamed?

[Jaimx86]

I'm horrified at the news of looters (small group) stealing from the London Marathon water station at Deptford! Some adults are using their child's pram to carry all of the bottles they're taking.
What will people do next year if this goes unpunished? Steal the runners' phones and trainers as they go past?!
The London Marathon Event Manager has said it will be investigated.

[ConferencePear]

It would appear that this wasn't a load of bollocks after all.
Quote from page 7 of Private Eye of April 29th.

"Buxton Water's owner Nestle told the Eye the bottles should have been used for future races."

[Sallyingforth]

It's a load of bollocks started by the Mail (of course), and copied by FB (no surprise there either).
The gutter was full of empty bottles that the runners are discarded, and no-one left to cheer any stragglers. Obviously the water wasn't needed by runners.
Better to let people help themselves than have the organisers clear them away - I doubt it could be resold anyway.

[bloodyteenagers]

Haha sorry contact @londonmarathon

[bloodyteenagers]

If anyone reading this was at the marathon on Sunday and can help with the investigation, can you please contact Buxton water?

I am not affiliated at all, I have just seen their Twitter posts.

[limitedperiodonly]

I'm listening to David Conn, a Guardian sports writer, right now on R4's PM talking about Hillsborough and the 'othering' of people and the willingness to believe lies about some groups of people. He's talking about football fans and people from Liverpool but he said that other groups are vulnerable.

[Queenbean]

limited I agree - I thought MNHQ's job was to be impartial and not add comments to debate. Surprised about this one.

[limitedperiodonly]

I used to think that the Hillsborough cover up wouldn't have happened if YouTube had existed in 1989. The whole thing was shown on the BBC and on other broadcasters, so if you were watching you could just look at it and decide for yourself who was telling the truth about that day.

The thing was that most people weren't watching and had no way of accessing the footage, so it was easy to tell lies. I wasn't and I have to say I believed them. Why wouldn't I? Highly respected people were telling me them. BTW the footage is available on YouTube now, with telling commentary from sports commentators who found themselves witnesses to a disaster.

But it's 2016, we have YouTube and eyes in our heads, and still people cling to the most feeble lies about people they want to think are scum.

I agreed with this from Muddha

mn, your headline water bottles stolen from marathon should at least be amended to say 'stolen' in inverted commas

I also found this comment extremely unprofessional:

LisaMumsnet (MNHQ) Mon 25-Apr-16 12:56:38 I am really dismayed to hear this! Everyone I know who runs marathons says how it restores your faith in humanity when total strangers offer you sweets or encouragement along the way. So instead of focusing on this sad event we should instead celebrate the hundreds of thousands of people who turned out yesterday to cheer the runners on. THAT is what the participants will remember - not the disgraceful actions of a handful of people who spoil things.

[MissHooliesCardigan]

I question the mentality of people who seem to want to believe the whole 'thieving scum' version of events despite repeatedly being told that people are positively encouraged to take this water.
Because 'Local people delighted to be given free water' doesn't have the same ring as 'Feral scum steal water from thirsty Marathon heroes'?
Who doesn't like getting stuff for free? They're always giving out free stuff at London stations. Yesterday, I got a free bottle of Ribena. On my return journey, I got another one. This probably makes me greedy and entitled according to some people on here.

[MissHooliesCardigan]

This is a perfect example of people stubbornly refusing to let facts get in the way of a good story. 'Greedy, chaotic, entitled theivery (sic)' WTAF?

[MuddhaOfSuburbia]

I saw Vanessa being mentioned upthread tho I didn't hear the show

I love V but she has Form

I remember her shouty prurient phone ins about looting in the days after Katrina- before it became absolutely clear that people had lost everything and were desperate to survive. Pure Express in radio format. At no point did she question the tabloid view- with her education!

I stopped listening to her right at that point

[bloodyteenagers]

More volunteers are posting to say the water as always was free to the residents.

The video was taken after 1pm for those interested. Not minutes after as he is claiming. At 1pm when a lot of runners had finished the race.

Some of the people who have recognized themselves have requested YouTube remove it.

[MuddhaOfSuburbia]

meantime, mn, your headline water bottles stolen from marathon should at least be amended to say 'stolen' in inverted commas

this isn't the daily mail

[MuddhaOfSuburbia]

here tis

it's not conclusive as the guy left the met a long while ago- still, it seems widely known locally that this is legit

and yet a minute long clip with no context whatsoever brings all the racists out

[MuddhaOfSuburbia]

ah

I didn't see this story, but I saw a rebuttal on twitter yesterday from a local pc who was very upset about it

he said that every year, as a gesture of goodwill (trust me, the marathon going through your neighbourhood can be a bit of a poisoned chalice) and to avoid waste, locals are invited to take left over water at the fag end of the marathon

I'll try and find it

[RuthyToothy]

and who steals bottled water???

Some people will steal anything that's there, regardless of whether they want or need it.

[limitedperiodonly]

They won't be able to do it now there's no water because greedy bastards have stolen it.

[HoneyDragon]

Why don't we just do all the Marathons in Buxton itself? Problem solved.

[limitedperiodonly]

What other sporting event was that squeak10?

[squeak10]

The water was going to be used at a other sporting event. They unfortunately stole it, probably thought they could make money selling it, as I'm sure they know they can get water turning on the tap. Very sad

[bloodyteenagers]

And one HUGE important detail that is being missed.

We are led to believe that the race has just started (ignoring the coach). That hoards of racers are about to descend parched and wanting the water.

The street are empty, well apart from the 'looters'. Where are the crowds of cheering supporters that line the entire race? Watch the full race. There are crowds of people cheering. Where are they? Gone home. Shock horror, people live their lives - they go shopping with shopping trollies. They take their toddlers out with buggies.

Actually TWO things. The second- the bottles that are empty. Look at footage of the actual run. The bottles litter the road. The clean up team, well the first part, gets
All those empties to the gutters. The barriers are down. Locals are told to help themselves are told to take as much as you want.

The guy who filmed and twisted this is a cretin who is making something from nothing.

[HoneyDragon]

It's only capitalism if it ain't in Deptford

[PlentyOfPubeGardens]

Not sure about entitled either. They had the excited air of people who've found an unexpected freebie - kind of the opposite of entitled.

[limitedperiodonly]

The evidence of our own eyes shows us social disorder - greedy, chaotic, entitled theivery for the most petty of motivations (water!)

Are we watching the same film scatterolight?

No it most definitely does not show us social disorder.

It shows people capitalising when presented with a commodity that they are either going to sell or consume for themselves. People do that. In the City of London, not a million miles from Deptford, if not praised for it, they are certainly rewarded.

Possibly they are greedy; but are we all not greedy sometimes? I know I am. Surely you've been too? Come on; confession is good for the soul and he who is without sin...

Chaotic? It seemed fairly organised to me - people brought trolleys and pushchairs and have been castigated for it. You can either have it one way or the other. It's greedy to try to have both.

Theft: that's debatable and I'm sure people will be looking into it.

So the worst crime they have committed so far is the ultimate Mumsnet sin of being entitled. How fucking awful.