devon beached - shipwrecked goodies anyone?

Edna_Bucket_2

Does it matter that some things are "personal"? Is it any worse taking these than goods which also belong to someone else too?

How is one thing stealing and another one not? (and both are vandalism by the state of the beach)

just curious.

Justamum

pennylane99 wrote:

some of those containers might also contain peoples personal effects/belongings that they were having shipped abroad....

There are personal household belongings on the ship. There is a couple shipping their household from Sweden to South Africa and they have things of sentimental value, which will no doubt end up in someone's house or on Ebay. The people taking these things are hardly going to fill in a form or hand it back are they, so they are stealing. There was a lawyer on the radio this morning saying that this isn't legitimate, and they are committing a crime. Personally I think these people are no better than common thieves. How would they like it if the same thing applied to a removal lorry moving their stuff from one house to another, it crashed, and anybody was "entitled" to take what they liked?

Scarlett1

Edna_Bucket wrote:

Does it matter that some things are "personal"? Is it any worse taking these than goods which also belong to someone else too?

no its not worse but just as bad, feel sorry for the people who have emmigrated and were expecting their personal possessions to be shipped over, instead watching vultures on tv cherry picking the best bits washed ashore.

FleetFanatic

lewt wrote:

Not if it was in the containter and was washed up in that..

My engine being flooded comment was a joke. :rotfl:

Guy_laister_2

I see why people are doing it and I cant really say that if I lived there I wouldnt be tempted to go down, but I do think it is steeling as it is other peoples possessions down there being taken and then sold on ebay. Also I think most people won't give back a form unless the police make them there and then. But It is stealing to me and I would really hate it if it was my stuff down there.

deanos

I think the media is to blame for alot of it, on the news yesterday they were telling people if was totally legal and all you had to do was ask for a form from the policemen on the beach thus creating more people to come on down

flobber_2

Justamum wrote:

There are personal household belongings on the ship. There is a couple shipping their household from Sweden to South Africa and they have things of sentimental value, which will no doubt end up in someone's house or on Ebay. The people taking these things are hardly going to fill in a form or hand it back are they, so they are stealing. There was a lawyer on the radio this morning saying that this isn't legitimate, and they are committing a crime. Personally I think these people are no better than common thieves. How would they like it if the same thing applied to a removal lorry moving their stuff from one house to another, it crashed, and anybody was "entitled" to take what they liked?

Those items were reported, so the Swedes will get it back (some of it at least).
I suppose that this happened only because the beachcombers who were looting the Swedes box were filmed and shown on TV - so they realized that they're not anonymous, and therefore reported the content of the box to the authorities.

Hermann

flobber wrote:

Those items were reported, so the Swedes will get it back (some of it at least).
I suppose that this happened only because the beachcombers who were looting the Swedes box were filmed and shown on TV - so they realized that they're not anonymous, and therefore reported the content of the box to the authorities.

It may well be that the Swedes are no longer the legal owners of the items.
I should think the moment they fell off the ship they became the subject of an insurance claim. As such the insurance company may well now be the owners, the Swedes getting a sum of money.

The Insurance company may not feel its worthwhile paying salvage on the items, or if they do pay salvage I don't think the items would just be handed over to the Swedes as they had already been paid out for the loss. Probably end up in an auction anyway.

The Swedes lost the items when they fell of the ship not when they were picked up on the beach, that was just salvage as defined by British Law.

pennylane99

Hermann wrote:

It may well be that the Swedes are no longer the legal owners of the items.
I should think the moment they fell off the ship they became the subject of an insurance claim. As such the insurance company may well now be the owners, the Swedes getting a sum of money.

The Insurance company may not feel its worthwhile paying salvage on the items, or if they do pay salvage I don't think the items would just be handed over to the Swedes as they had already been paid out for the loss. Probably end up in an auction anyway.

The Swedes lost the items when they fell of the ship not when they were picked up on the beach, that was just salvage as defined by British Law.

if people had left the containers alone...and not broken into them and looted what was inside, that family may have got back most of their family heirlooms and personal stuff, things that money and insurance claims cant replace.

HugoSP

pennylane99 wrote:

if people had left the containers alone...and not broken into them and looted what was inside, that family may have got back most of their family heirlooms and personal stuff, things that money and insurance claims cant replace.

I could not agree more. These are personal items, and I for one would be unhappy about heving them taken away.

Sales stock is another matter. If I sent for £20,000 worth of goods from an exporter and they never showed up I would have an out of stock situation, but I would not expect to have to pay for them. All I would need to do is to find other stock. Even if they were untouched on the beach and they could still make their way to me, it would probably take too long to be of any use to me in a shop.

However, if I sent for some personal effects etc, and they were lost overboard I may really want them back if they got washed up on the beach. If an insurance company paid out for them then I was offered the chance to buy them back at settlement price I may entertain this offer.

My father got burgled a few years ago. They took the following items:

A non working computer
A knackered printer
A faulty stereo
A dodgy video player
A silver cigar case

He was really chuffed to be without the first 4 items. The two bits of IT equipment were the property of his company. Items 3 and 4 were due for replacement anyway. The only item that he would have wanted back was the cigar case, which is a family heirloom. Everything else was replaced with new immediately.

The whole claim was settled by the insurers. The cigar case should have been insured as a separate item but wasn't, so he got the max single item value on this (IIRC that was around £1k but the case was worth more).

About a month later the police contacted him to tell him that the cigar case had been found. It was in a neighbour's garden. The idiots had slung the only item that was worth nicking! The case was now the property of the insurers as they had paid out for it, but Father was able to refund the insurance co the £1k minus the cost of repairing it to buy it back off them (it had got damaged when they hurled it into the neighbour's garden). The insurers were happy as was my dad, as the value of the claim had gone down.

So, just because legal ownership may have transferred from the original owner when the goods fell overboard, it doesn't mean that the original owners should not be considered, especially when personal items are at stake.