Then again, news like this probably dissuades the real culprits from coming back to New Orleans.
If you want a Google GMail account, FReepmail me.
They're going fast!
Posted on 09/19/2005 7:41:43 AM PDT by SmithL
NEW ORLEANS - It was like a modern-day treasure map - a computerized diagram of neighborhoods with codes marking the addresses where National Guard soldiers came upon caches of goods taken by looters in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
"There's probably still loot out there" hidden in various homes, Capt. Gregg McGowan said from his Oklahoma National Guard unit's makeshift headquarters.
"We're not going house-to-house looking for it, but if we find it, we secure it so police can check it."
In the chaos that followed Katrina's flooding, looters targeted everything from grocery stores to gun shops to trendy women's clothing boutiques. Now that the city is mostly empty of civilians, military patrols making house-to-house checks for remaining residents or the dead are finding some of the hiding places for the stolen goods.
New Orleans District Attorney Eddie Jordan said he intends to prosecute as many looters as he can. However, few arrests have been made thus far because authorities have been primarily concerned with reaching stranded residents, Jordan said.
The guardsmen recently thought they had caught a looter coming back into town to load his stash onto a moving truck. Inside his home, the soldiers found automobile parts stacked 8 feet high, a new off-road motorcycle and various electronics, including a video game system with a pawn shop ticket still attached.
But the man told the soldiers he had no idea where the goods came from and that someone else must have broken into his home and stashed them there after he evacuated. Skeptical, the soldiers detained him until police arrived, filled out a report and seized the goods. They took the man's name and address, but did not arrest him.
"You could be technical and say, 'I'm going to book him with possession of stolen property,' but then you have to find out who the owner is, find out whether that person had permission take that property," New Orleans Police Capt. Marlon Defillo said.
"So what we're generally doing is seizing the goods as found property and writing a report."
That way, he explained, authorities can return the goods if they figure out where they came from - rather than holding them as evidence pending the resolution of often drawn-out criminal cases.
In other homes, McGowan's unit found automatic teller machines that had been broken open and emptied of cash and bags of ammunition still packaged in 500-round bundles, not the individual boxes of 20 rounds usually sold over the counter.
A smashed-open video poker machine, likely taken from a bar, was left lying on the sidewalk of an Uptown residential street.
In a church-run assisted living home close to a heavily looted Wal-Mart in the lower Garden District, a team of guardsmen found new bicycles, stereos and clothing. Someone associated with the church, who refused to give his name, said at least seven rooms in the four-story residence were filled with goods believed to be stolen.
New Orleans police are storing seized loot in a makeshift warehouse near the city's train station, Defillo said. He declined to provide details on how many goods had been found, how many businesses or homes had been looted, or if authorities had any long-term plan to track down some of the culprits.
"We haven't even had time to deal with that yet," he said.
But it's understandable. They've been oppressed all their lives, and they needed to eat.
Then again, news like this probably dissuades the real culprits from coming back to New Orleans.
If you want a Google GMail account, FReepmail me.
They're going fast!
They needed poker games, ATMs, ammo, and bikes "just to survive." /sarc
Most of these thugs will fall for the old, "Come and pick up the check we are holding for you" ruse.
Like really right.
The guardsmen recently thought they had caught a looter coming back into town to load his stash onto a moving truck. Inside his home, the soldiers found automobile parts stacked 8 feet high, a new off-road motorcycle and various electronics, including a video game system with a pawn shop ticket still attached. But the man told the soldiers he had no idea where the goods came from and that someone else must have broken into his home and stashed them there after he evacuated. Skeptical, the soldiers detained him until police arrived, filled out a report and seized the goods. They took the man's name and address, but did not arrest him.
This is equally rich. What? You gonna believe what I tell you or your own lyin' eyes?
Sounds like someone had an underwater blow torch opening ATM's. Those things probably aren't very easy to get into...
"You could be technical and say, 'I'm going to book him with possession of stolen property,' but then you have to find out who the owner is, find out whether that person had permission take that property," New Orleans Police Capt. Marlon Defillo said.
Jordan intends to prosecute looters...but he can't. It's just too dang much trouble. But he really, really meant well, so remember that when he comes up for reelection, ya hear?
Hey, don't knock fricaseed mountain bike till you've tried it. My gramma always said to boil it extra long, to tenderize it a bit.
Avast ye! Them land lubbers done smartly go on account. The loot be not hidden with the "X"..AAAaaaarr.
... but... but... but the only things these so-called "looters" were taking, throughout the entire Katrina debacle, was absolutely essential life-or-death stuff like bottled water, and day-old bread, and stuff like that, there! And anyone who says otherwise is just a big, mean ol' racist stinkypants! THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA SAID SO, GOLDANG IT -- !!!!
Argh! That be today?
They just wanted to touch those things.
"They just took food and water" ping.
Rent them?
They're leaving the New Orleans police to "check on it?" HAHAHAHAHA
Apologies to honest law enforcement officers everywhere...
That assumes these $&^*heads pay attention to the news ...
bags of ammunition still packaged in 500-round bundles
Hey!!! I resemble that.
Shure enough matie. Shiver me Timbers.
Eat your TV.
I hope that there is still some fingerprint evidence. If those prints are in the system, then I hope the culprits are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Huh?
You need no finger print evidence when stolen good are found inside your own home.
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