You know, crisis situations like natural disasters often bring out the best in people. everyone pitches in and complete strangers do their best by their fellow man. This has been particularly evident during the bushfire crisis here in Australia and my hat is off to every one of those who went the extra mile to help another.
Unfortunately though, disaster situations also bring out the vermin and I’m talking about the human kind. Also known as looters, these are the lowlife types who see a disaster situation as an opportunity to profit at the expense of the innocent victims. During the bushfire crisis, many people were evacuated from their homes and towns as the fire front approached and while they could save some of their possessions, they couldn’t take everything. And so they sat it out in another town and prayed their homes would survive. Some of them were lucky, but many were not.
But what the fires didn’t take, looters did, and a number of people returned to their home towns only to find that while their house was still standing, looters had ransacked the place and taken off with whatever they could carry away. This would have to be one of the lowest acts a person could inflict on another and the unnecessary grief and stress it causes is unforgivable. No one should have to come home to that, but to survive a life-threatening situation only to find that looters had helped themselves to your belongings while you were taking refuge somewhere else is something none of us should have to experience. But there they were, breaking into homes in deserted coastal towns without a thought for the homeowners stranded elsewhere.
Fortunately, when word got out to the authorities, they arrived and hung around and before long had caught just about all of them, I think, and do you know what these vermin claimed in their defence? That they were entitled to loot because they needed things. I think it was more a case of they just wanted to help themselves to whatever took their fancy and saw a unique opportunity. Need would have had very little to do with it.
They were not after food specifically, or water, blankets or other necessities. These were not the items they took. Instead, the looters took valuables like jewellery and electronics, money if they could find it, clothing they didn’t need, goodies from garages as well as vehicles and in at least on instance, a caravan! This is not need. This is selfishness on a criminal scale.
Luckily for them, the police caught them before the community did, because I think they would have had a much rougher time if the locals had got their hands on them. Luckily for us, those who went a-lootin’ will not get of lightly when it goes to court. But nor should they. These people deliberately took advantage of a bad situation for personal gain and that’s really disgraceful. I commend the diligence of the local police forces who turned out to catch these people. But the fact we had looters coming in and targeting deserted coastal towns in the first place made me so angry. I’m glad they were caught and I hope they get the sentences they deserve.
Vermin. Plain and simple.