Sometimes at night, there’d be no street lights, because a local gang had stolen them and was selling them back to the “refugee camp” administration.
Sam book, different chapter: A contractor developed a mapping metal detector for us. In about 1998 or so they contracted with the UN weapons inspectors (Saddam and his proscribed materials) to find buried stuff in the desert. Parts of their equipment would disappear and be available at the roadside market the next day.
It’s the third-world way.