Posted on 09/23/2005 6:51:31 PM PDT by neverdem
Associated Press
HOUSTON -- When Houston-area residents heeded warnings to flee Hurricane Rita, they left behind nearly abandoned neighborhoods and stores.
And a potential playground for thieves.
By Friday morning at least three people had been arrested on charges of looting. Houston school district police arrested three juveniles Thursday night who were accused of going room to room at Hamilton Middle School looking for electronics.
“They did this because they thought no one would be paying attention,” district spokesman Terry Abbott said. “We are amazed it was happening even before the storm.”
Houston Police Capt. Dwayne Ready said city police had not received reports of looting but were making extra patrols in areas around pawn shops, gun shops and stores such as Wal-Mart that might “be attractive to the criminal element.”
Ready said the department would pay greater-than-usual attention to pawn shops and gun shops after looters in New Orleans raided such stores, leaving roving bands of gunmen on the streets after Hurricane Katrina.
Ready said officers had responded to several burglary calls since the mass evacuations in the state’s largest city started earlier this week, but said they were routine calls and didn’t rise to the level of looting.
“I think the key element in looting is the fact that those who would not otherwise engage themselves in criminal activity (join in) and believe they will be able to hide in the crowd,” Ready said. “It’s the difference between an unlawful assembly and a riot. Essentially (looting) is theft but I think its when the crowd believes they can hide against the anonymity of a large crowd engaged in the same kind of conduct.”
And with the department at full alert Friday morning, Ready said officers would be very visible as long as weather conditions allow.
“We have put out the message that we are not going to tolerate looting and we have increased out presence and visibility,” Ready said.
Abbott said his officers were also planning to be very visible throughout the day.
To the south of the city, in South Houston and nearby Bellaire, police officials said they also had not received any reports of looting.
There's no bag limit on varmints.
Nah, that is not a wrecked house, it's boat sheds and piers. They always get destroyed during a storm.
That's very interesting. I'll have to do some research. Missouri has some "strange" names too. Such as Frankenstein, Mo. Where in the world did that come from?
Another one that has always stuck in my mind is back in the late '60's, before my brother was shipped out to Yokuska, he took a drive through the New England countryside. He said it really tickled him to have to go through Intercourse to get to Paradise.
I don't remember which state that was tho.
Exactly!
Texas law allows us property owners to permanently end the looter's career.
I do believe that beats anything I could have dealt out of Texas! I would not have believed it possible.
Gotta love his name: Captain Ready!
Uhhh errrr...dunno....
Amish country in south east PA.
A few good ones fom WV... Flinderation, Onego (Onestay?) Polkadotte, Six and Thursday.
So where in Hades were their parents?!
"We never fill the cars with gas until they're at 1/4 full. Topping-off is one cause contributing toward gasoline shortages."
Good way to trash your engine rather quickly, as it encourages condensation on the inside of your gas tank, which mixes with the fuel, and causes your engine to run poorly. Better put some Heet in there if you intend to follow that practice for long. Better yet, fill it at 3/4th of a tank, and avoid the problem. Not to mention that if you need to leave, suddenly, you'll be able to do so. Even my 40mpg VW Golf won't go all that far on a quarter tank.
I am from Texas and a man, so I will never blow anyone to Kingdom come. Maybe blow them away though.
You must be from the Heights.
Not exactly, but close.
That is correct.
This lovely daughter of Texas was born on April 25, 1969, in Katy and graduated from Katy High School and UT - Austin.
Just as the Amish? and others practice keeping a year's amount of food on hand in case of poor harvest,bad weather,sickness is sensible.If everyone ,including businesses. was encouraged to keep ample supplies of fuel,goods, and medicines on hand then price gouging,radical peaks and valleys in supply and demand would be evened out.
Unfortuneately, high taxes on inventory and high interest rates encourage the just barely enough for today scheme. So our economy and our very lives are always in an unnecessarily precarious position.
I would define reasonable storage as that amount of "whatever" that you will or have historically used in a past year ,taking into account changes . City codes and the switch to utilities in place of individual coal cellars and oil tanks prevent most people from having heat in a winter disaster.
Oh well. Nervous nellies everywhere. The Vette runs fine on 94 octane that gets FILLED UP when it runs down to 1/4 tank. The same is true for my wife's Beemer.
"The Vette runs fine on 94 octane that gets FILLED UP when it runs down to 1/4 tank. The same is true for my wife's Beemer."
Where are you finding 94 octane? Best I can do here is 93. I usually can only find 91 octane, for that matter. On the other hand, my 85 VW Golf gets 40mpg even now. I never have cold-start problems with it, either. Haven't had that sort of problem since I started filling more frequently, about a dozen years ago. I don't think I qualify as a nervous nellie.
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