Has your opinion of the looters changed now then

[CODNoMore]

you " let them have it" gang>

Have to admit that's my concern too berrycherry. If the looters didn't take the stuff unofficially is someone else going to do it officially? All of it? Will the families get their possessions back?

And personal is very different to corporate. Some company shipping 20 motorbikes gets them 'beachcombed' they can claim it back. A family gets their family photos nicked insurance won't do the job. I must admit I didn't know that this was happening - quite different and horrible.

Someone on here said that it was indicative of our modern age - it isn't. Taking goods from ship wrecks has been going on for centuries - at least nowadays they don't cause the shipwreck or slit the throats of any inconvenient survivors.

Well you know where I stood on this one anyway cod but, there are people on here whose families run small businesses which might involve the odd container being shipped. Not all businesses can write losses off like BMW can.
Am really sad to hear of personal possessions being looted too - e.g. thinking of Mners who have emigrated and presumably had some of their stuff shipped - but I still think the goods shouldn't have been taken in the first place.
And would expect the shipping company, or their underwriters, to foot the bill of clearing the beaches and doing all possible to restore the natural environment.
Two wrongs don't make a right IMO.

I can't believe they are stupid enough to go on national tv saying what they have got. It is theft!!

nab3, I agree with the stupidity of going on TV, and I think its wrong - apparently it is not theft - provided they fill out the form. I think that the owners have 12 months to claim it back. Of course, I doubt many people will fill out the forms, and things are already going on ebay, so iot is a very grey area.

There are BMW motorbikes, apparently complete with paperwork and a full tank of petrol. I would assume that these have security codes and could be traced. If these are not registered, then maybe the people who have taken them can be charged with theft. It is important that the media reports this correctly, and stops sensationalising the story, so people understand the facts. This would mean that some of these "looters" have helped clear the beaches a lot quicker than any official clean up, and helped with further contamination.

The looters aren't helping to clear up the mess. They're contributing to it by breaking open containers and scattering unwanted stuff around, making the clear up job much longer.

I heard a guy on the radio say he had travelled down from bath to come her especially to see what he could get , thats quite sad I think

Also it will take a year to clean up

not to mention potentially spreading contamination, suedonim. There are people removing 'empty' drums/barrels, who knows what was in them, whether there are traces left in them that these people are taking home ?

Eeugh, NDP! Who'd want to take that risk for a packet of nappies?

sorry .. who's approving of the looters .. and where please

I should like to be condemnatory and judgemental for a moment

i've just come back from the school run, and this is certainly a topic of the day - everybody seems to be concerned about the clean up, I haven't met anyone who has actually been looting, or at least nobody is admitting it! If this takes a year to clean up, it will devastate this area of AOB for far longer. this rubbish will be washing back up on to the beaches for years to come. Maybe the looters should be encouraged to help with the clean up

Can the owners' insurance go after the looters if they determine that the property belongs in fact to the owner?

I mean, I presume the folks who stole hte BMW may try to sell them, so can the insurance companies go after them?

Looting is theft. And thuggish as well.

I can't help hoping that while these looters are out helping themselves to other people's property, some thieving scumbag is busy helping themselves to the looters property. Maybe even leaving them a nice note saying "No harm done. Your insurance will cover it."

I think it is disgusting, cannot believe that people are taking peoples posessions like that. Some people just have no morals at all.

fgs its fine- whats the problem? If you found a tenner on a beach would you take it to the police

"There are BMW motorbikes, apparently complete with paperwork and a full tank of petrol. "

ahh - well any fool that takes on of those for themselves will find salt corrosion occuring in a few months time - then who'll look stupid

NAO - no a tenner on the beach has no 'obvious' owner - stuff off a ship - in which all containers are marked/coded have owners which are traceable and therefore is theft (IMO)

It is theft. If you take something that doesn't belong to you - you didn't earn it, you didn't buy it, you didn't pay for it and it wasn't given as a gift, then you stole it. It's no different than if you burgled a house or a shop, or stole a motorbike parked in the street.

some people have been taking stuff to look after it and will hand it in

No they are thieves, the lot of them . It was obvious no-one was going to store the haul on behalf of the receiver of wreck .
I, too was horrified at the story of the people losing the contents of their house. It is one thing to learn they have gone down with a ship, another to see aload of thieving bastrds making off with them.

when this first happemnnned, I can understand why some people went to the beaches and started taking things, the police did not stop them, they just gave them a form, and told them they musrt register all items, or it would be theft. Then the media started banging on about it, and then people started coming from all over the placeto get what they could.

it is shocking, and imo wrong - but it is not legally theft unless they do not register the item.

I agree with the £10 thing - if you found it on a beach would you take it to the police?

tbh I trhink local people taking the odd thing is not as bad as the groups travelling miles to go through the stuff

It?s very, very sad,? Mr Bokdal said. ?We didn?t have that much insurance

Well, I think that they can't moan if they didn't have insurance

I mean if the ship had gone down then they would have lost it all anyway!

(not that I am condoning the evil menace looter scum in any way )

It's NOT £10 though, in the case of the new BMW bike, it's £10,000. If I found that much money, I would take it to the police, if I found £100 I would take it to the police, if I found £50 I would take it to the police...don't know how low I would go before I would consider helping myself to someone else's money "fair"

i think its fun! Its a one off ...everyone will be compensated...reminds me of them smugglin'days 'oohh arr'

I think it's pretty thuggy, myself.