On 24/1/07 09:04, in article , "David
Rance" wrote:

On Tue, 23 Jan 2007 Robert wrote:

: Here in Dorset, often the whole community would venture out, often in
: appalling weather to grab whatever was there for the taking.
:
: PS It is said that ships were sometime lured onto rocks with
: judiciously placed lights so that wrecking could take place.

Good luck to them I say. If someone has the cheek to put a ship like that to
sea, endangering our coast, then they deserve no compassion and their cargo
is 'fair game'. The only quite big problem I have with this ship's cargo is
that the redistribution is causing more damage to the beach than the
original containers were...

But that's hardly fair to those people who were entrusting their
personal belongings to a transport company and which were seen to be
stolen when reported on television as, for instance, the couple who had
emigrated to South Africa. Ok, so they were insured (I suppose) but you
can't replace something with sentimental value.

David

Whatever the rights and wrongs of the ship, the shipping company, insurance
or the lack of it, it is NOT right to steal things that belong to others,
whether it's a couple moving home or a large factory in China. And this was
stealing, whether the law calls it that or not. The idea that the thieves
have 28 days in which to fill in a form and return it is just a piece of
passing the buck bureaucratic nonsense. The stuff taken from that beach is
already appearing for sale on eBay.

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
http://www.discoverdartmoor.co.uk/
(remove weeds from address)