Thievery in the Best and Worst of Times
Kevin Felts 05.14.18
To borrow and paraphrase a line from Charles Dickens, and then apply the phrase to prepping, “Thievery in the best of times, and in the worst of times.”
If people are willing to steal and not bat an eye when there is plenty, what would those people be willing to do during or after a disaster? This does not even have to a collapse of society, but something like a natural disaster.
After a hurricane makes landfall there are usually stores of generators being stolen in the middle of the night. After Hurricane Rita and Hurricane Ike, there were numerous stories of trucks backing up to a generator in the middle of the night, then speeding away with the generator in the back of the truck.
A lot of people have their generators sitting outside their house unsecured. After all, it’s not really safe to run a generator inside the house. During Hurricane Rita a whole family died here in southeast Texas. To protect their generator, the family ran it inside their apartment. We all know how that turned out.
Generators are just one small pixel of the big picture. Stores are broken into, looters carry out everything they can. We have all seen the news reports.
A personal example of thievery. A friend of mine called and asked if I would cook for a fishing tournament. Of course I said yes. The pit was pulled to location, canopy and tables set up, then the cooking started. The four briskets and 5 pork shoulders were put on at midnight. At 1:00 pm the next day the meat was pulled off the pit, prepared and laid out for everyone to eat.
Having reached the point of utter exhaustion, I drove the few miles home to get a nap. Rather than going back that evening, I told the guys I would be back the next day to get the pit.
The next morning I received a phone call informing me one of my ice chest had been stolen. On top of that, all of the uncooked meat had also been stolen.
Stolen uncooked meat:
- 10 pounds of chicken legs.
- 5 pounds of chicken thighs.
- 3 pounds of sausage.
- 12 pounds of pork loin, two loins weighing six pounds each.
- Family sized pack of hot dogs.
All the meat was in an Igloo ice chest that was under a table, and behind the pit. Someone picked up the ice chest, loaded it up, and took off with it. In all, maybe 30-35 pound of meat was stolen. It was enough to cook Sunday lunch for some of the people in the fishing tournament.
If that was not enough, the hot dogs had been bought for the kids who had fished in the tournament. We were going to put the hot dogs on the pit, cook them up, and give the kids hot dogs and chips.
So in effect, the thieves stole food from children.
Let’s think about this for a minute. If certain people are willing to go crazy with the looting after a hurricane, and willing to commit petty theft when there is plenty, what would they do if a collapse were to happen?
It is just a matter of time before humanity faces another plague. When something like that happens, those so willing to resort to petty theft would probably have no sense of morality. It is that sense of morality which helps bind society together.
