Looters have come from afar to Okla. after tornado

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Looters have come from afar to Okla. after tornado
| June 8, 2013 | Updated: June 8, 2013 6:10pm

MOORE, Okla. (AP) — Authorities say looters have come from as far away as New York and Virginia to steal from victims of last month's tornado in Moore, Okla.

The Oklahoman reports (http://bit.ly/18UQjGJ ) that police arrested one man from Elmhurst, N.Y., and two from Virginia on misdemeanor complaints of stealing copper wire, scrap metal and other items from homes destroyed by the May 20 tornado. Twenty-four people were killed.

Several Moore residents were also arrested on similar misdemeanor complaints.

Residents have filed theft reports for such items as a $50,000 watch, a $13,000 watch, a $2,000 fountain pen and a $1,300 hunting camera.


Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Looters-have-come-from-afar-to-Okla-after-tornado-4589179.php

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(Short article, no more at link.)

[uppityperson]

1. What is wrong with some people?

[TrogL]

2. I was security for the Edmonton 1987 tornado

We were chasing off looters driving Mercedes

[freshwest]

3. How bizarre that must have been. Was it a really bad tornado?

[TrogL]

4. F4. Wiped out a trailer park. Lifted a train

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmonton_tornado

[freshwest]

8. That is something else there. The closest one I've been to that was an F5. It carried very heavy

things many miles, tore the houses off the slabs and also pulled up asphalt roads. I won't go into the gruesome details but the debris made the area like a huge blender. The only survivors in the path were underground.

[Gabby Hayes]

24. Good point about the gruesome details

Too many television weathermen and storm chasers treat disasters like a sport. They rarely if ever see or hear the human loss.

With all eyes on Oklahoma right now, it might be a good time to remind readers that large scale killer tornadoes have struck far-reaching parts of the U.S. Just over a week before the Edmonton tornado, an unlikely F-5 suddenly destroyed the small West Texas desert community of Saragosa, killing 30. Most of the remaining residents were injured. I was there a few days later and only one service station left standing.

On June 8, 1953, an F-5 killed 121 in Flint, Michigan. The next day, 90 persons perished and nearly 1,300 persons were injured in an F-5 at Worcester, Mass. A survey of witnesses conducted by The U.S. Weather Bureau found that only a tiny percentage of Worcester respondents had ever seen a tornado.

The Xenia, Ohio,Tornado of April 1974 was long considered by scientists to be the most powerful tornado in American history. Thirty-six people were killed. Scientists still treat the tornado with great reverence.

On August 12, 1999, Salt Lake City was hit by a noteworthy tornado for the first time in well over a century. The F-2 killed one and injured at least 100.

All of you get my point: Regardless of where you live, you really should glance over you shoulder now and then during tornado season.

[GreenStormCloud]

41. In 1814, the night after the burning of Washington, a tornado hit.

It lifted cannons off the ground as it swept through the British forces. Tree were uprooted and tossed about. The British soldiers had no shelter and many were killed. In fact the storm killed more Brits than the American Army had. Two British ships had been washed ashore. The British left Washington.

[Gabby Hayes]

23. I remember the Edmonton twister and kept the newspaper

[MindMover]

5. 300+ mph winds, the highest recorded on earth ...!!!!!

[freshwest]

7. Someone wrote that Moore held that record some years back. It's all awful, though.

Many more of these and people are going to have to seriously reconsider how to rebuilt in areas that cannot escape tornadoes because of topography and seasonal temperature fluctuation. Thanks for the information.

[timdog44]

36. I was working as a surgery nurse

when the F5 tornado came through Plainfield, Illinois. Gruesome is a word that cannot be used enough to describe what a tornado acan do to people and other things.

[freshwest]

37. You really know then, what it is. The details from Jarrell were mind searing, and quickly hushed up.

The police kept people away, so a few details were leaked by the news. There will always be some who don't understand and scream 'police state' if they're told 'No' for any reason, and some used that as it sells well.

First responders see it all, just like a surgical nurse. Forensics had to identify the missing by analyzing shreds.

Anyone else going in to get a look would have contaminated the scene.

[Liberal Veteran]

10. Why were you driving a Mercedes?

[TrogL]

14. I was stationed at the entrance turning away cars

Of people who didn't belong there at the trailer park. Several were driving Mercedes and unable to state their business there

[Jesus Malverde]

18. Does that mean they are looters, maybe looky loos...nt.

[1620rock]

6. A $50,000 watch, a $13,000 watch, a $2,000 fountain pen?

The camera sounds plausible, but a $2,000 ink pen? the watches?? I think the insurance adjusters might look twice at these claims.

I guess these vermin (looters) will always be with us. Remember the tales from centuries ago? Pick-pockets would work the crowds during the public hanging of pick-pockets.

[Shrike47]

12. If you google expensive fountain pens you will see several in the $50,000 neighborhood.

It's not my neighborhood.

[naaman fletcher]

13. This story doesn't add up:

Notice, the people arrested were only arrested in essence for recycling junk scrap metal. The watches and stuff? Who is to say that people from afar are doing that sort of thing. If your house is destroyed and there is stuff scattered all over of course the homeowner is reporting the stuff lost.

This all sounds sensationalist to me.

[Jesus Malverde]

19. More like asking local transients their last known address....nt

[marble falls]

33. Good catch, though scrap requires time and a truck and all a $15k watch needs is a quick grab and ..

a pocket. The scraper is an easier catch.

[naaman fletcher]

34. Sure,

But it's been a week. Let's say you had a 15K watch and your house is destroyed. What do you do?

If you know where it is in your house, you'd gave retrieved it by now (assuming your house was destroyed in a orderly manner i.e. the bedroom stuff is still sort of in the bedroom, etc.

If your house was not destroyed in an orderly manner, for all you now that watch got thrown 1/2 a mile and you will never find it.

Also, I'd bet a LOT of people are just claiming it was gone to pull an insurance scam.

So along come the scrap metal guys who in a certain way are doing everybody a service. It's essentially free demolition of all metal things.

Yeah of course if they find the watch they are gonna pocket it.

But in general this just seems like a WAY overhyped story of looters coming from far away to rob people.

[elehhhhna]

38. ins. won't cover a 15K watch without a rider and appraisal.

just saying

[OldRedneck]

15. Expensive watches, pens, and the like

I purchased a stainless steel Rolex GMT-Master watch in the Bien Hoa Air Base exchange in 1970 as I was waiting for my flight back to the world. Cost $196.00 . . . a fortune at that time, but, I had been in the bush for 364 days and a wake-up and had accumulated a fair sum of pay.

I send it back to Rolex in NYC every 10-12 years for service. I sent it to Rolex for service in January and they told me to insure it for $9,000!!!

My brother retired from a major worldwide engineering firm last year. As a retirement gift they gave him a gold Rolex President; he has it insured for $35,000.

As for fountain pens, I use a Mont Blanc Diplomat for which I paid around $100 10 or so years ago. Amazon is selling the same pen for over $800 today.

My Mont Blanc is at the low end of the "luxury fountain pen" price scale, though: Check out these pens . . . $25,000; $21,900; email for price.
http://www.pianki.com/Expensive-Pens_c_365.html

[Paladin]

31. Nothing unusual about such high-dollar items in oil country.....(nt)

[politicat]

40. I have a couple that massively appreciated. It's not an unlikely price for an antique.

I've been collecting school pens since I was a kid - most of mine are well loved, well used, and not worth much, if anything. However, my great-grandfather was given multiple pens upon his graduation from high school and college. He only used one of them and left the rest still in their presentation boxes in the back of his desk. I inherited them and had them appraised for our insurance. I was pleasantly surprised. Given that they are unused and in box, they're worth a tidy sum.

Same thing happens with watches -- antiques that are well cared for appreciate.

Looting seems to be a thing in the human psyche -- a high percentage of battlefield relics exist today specifically because somebody went out and went through the pockets of dead soldiers. Grr.

[pscot]

9. there's a reality tv show planned: Looters

Family programming for the New Age.

[47of74]

20. Wouldn't doubt it with the shit for brains media leadership running around these days.

[DeSwiss]

11. Omnia sint unum.

[skamaria]

39. Omnia est totum

[DeSwiss]

42. Ain't that the truth. n/t

[Eleanors38]

16. Beware the flatbed truck heading toward a hurricane.

[delrem]

17. I think it's instinct/greed and some people are adept at it.

I got burnt out of an apt, once. Dazed, I escaped through a window, reached ground and was met by some guy, a neighbor, who offered to help me out. He put on a full-body plastic/fiber suit and wandered with me into the shell. He was faster than me and was scoping the place whereas I was still bemused with "holy shit, I just lost everything!" The fire-crew knew he was a vulture and gave him dirty looks.

In the end I don't think his takings were very great. Likely more work than they were worth. It did give me experience in how to spot a vulture, tho'

[47of74]

21. Comparing these guys to vultures is insulting to vultures

[NaturalHigh]

32. True.

Vultures have a purpose in the grand scheme, unlike cretins like these.

[DiverDave]

22. Just sick

I dont get some people, just dont get it.

Add to the suffering, thats what they do...

[Brother Buzz]

25. Oklahoma needs a Clinton Tyree

Clinton Tyree, a.k.a. Skink,

[TheDebbieDee]

27. A Carl Hiaasen character, right?

Environmenatlist and Former Governer of Florida.

[Brother Buzz]

28. Yes

Hiaasen's Stormy Weather dealt with looters and con men in a most righteous way following a Florida hurricane; crime doesn't pay, just ask Snapper.

[obama2terms]

26. Pretty sad that people travel from so far away

To steal from people who already have so little now.

[juajen]

30. They aren't stealing photos, china, momentos. Consider them

useful clean up. People that were torn apart have already been there to recoup precious memories. My daughter recently cleaned out one home to go to another that was already totally furnished. She was very glad when people came and picked up useful things. It also saves the landfills. Of course this should only be allowed after days when owners can canvass their own homes.

[vinny9698]

29. Is it profitable to travel such a distance to loot in a middle class town

Not like it is Beverly Hills or Malibu. Wouldn't you do a benefit cost analysis to determine costs vs potential profit. I know copper is selling quite well but not that well.

[naaman fletcher]

35. No.

That's the point. See my comments above. These guys are here for the scrap. They can probably make a couple hundred bucks a day for a month.

Nobody drove halfway across the country to a middle class town to loot destroyed houses.