2007-01-23 11:47:32 · 6 answers · asked by Tamart 6 in Politics & Government ➔ Law Enforcement & Police
Taking items that have been washed ashore from the sea is not looting. These items were not taken from the ship, they were washed up on the beach.People who live on the coast have always salvaged such items and this is not theft, providing the salvager notifies the police within28 days of the items they have taken. If left on the shore, all of this stuff would have been washed back out to sea with the next tide, there it would have been saturated and would have sunk to the bottom of the sea. Surely it is better someone can make use of them, especially in this `recycle-age`? After a shipwreck, very very little of the cargo is ever of any use once it has been in the sea for 24 hours, consequently the insurers are not interested in salvage. The operation to salvage costs more than the value of most of the goods, so it turns into a clean -up action and the less stuff on the beach, the cheaper it is for them to clean up the area. In Devon and Cornwall the people have done this for hundreds of years. On the whole,( especially these days when there are TV cameras covering the events,)the majority of people do notify the police of any items they have; and this is usually the end of it. The insurance company is not interested in having back any de-composable items. Although I have not been to the wreck site my self, I know of several people who have done so.The items they salvaged were :- tins of cat food, jars of hair gel and toiletries, wellington boots. None of these items would have been of any use once the sea water got into the crates. As far as the police were concerned, they were there to keep the peace, the shipping company nor the insurers had made requests to them to `protect` the lost cargo, so they did not interfere. If they are now stopping the salvagers, then they must have had a request to do so from the interested parties.
2007-01-23 12:29:15 · answer #1 · answered by Social Science Lady 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Technically they were not looters and were within the law to take the stuff, as long as they reported what they took within 28 days.
Today, there were much larger crowds and the police probably stepped in to stop it getting out of hand
2007-01-23 12:04:29 · answer #2 · answered by Northern Spriggan 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
They were having a blitz on motorists.
2007-01-23 22:19:58 · answer #3 · answered by ? 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
because they've only just realised that their new BMW motorbikes (without police colours) have gone missing!
2007-01-23 12:24:23 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
too busy looting themselves!
2007-01-25 02:42:02 · answer #5 · answered by pstzqueen 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They were too busy... looting
2007-01-23 11:53:50 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋