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Sep 19, 3:04 AM EDT

Looters' Caches Popping Up in New Orleans

By BRETT MARTEL
Associated Press Writer

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- It was like a modern-day treasure map - a computerized diagram of neighborhoods with codes marking the addresses where National Guard soldiers came upon caches of goods taken by looters in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

"There's probably still loot out there" hidden in various homes, Capt. Gregg McGowan said from his Oklahoma National Guard unit's makeshift headquarters.

"We're not going house-to-house looking for it, but if we find it, we secure it so police can check it."

In the chaos that followed Katrina's flooding, looters targeted everything from grocery stores to gun shops to trendy women's clothing boutiques. Now that the city is mostly empty of civilians, military patrols making house-to-house checks for remaining residents or the dead are finding some of the hiding places for the stolen goods.
 
New Orleans District Attorney Eddie Jordan said he intends to prosecute as many looters as he can. However, few arrests have been made thus far because authorities have been primarily concerned with reaching stranded residents, Jordan said.

The guardsmen recently thought they had caught a looter coming back into town to load his stash onto a moving truck. Inside his home, the soldiers found automobile parts stacked 8 feet high, a new off-road motorcycle and various electronics, including a video game system with a pawn shop ticket still attached.

But the man told the soldiers he had no idea where the goods came from and that someone else must have broken into his home and stashed them there after he evacuated. Skeptical, the soldiers detained him until police arrived, filled out a report and seized the goods. They took the man's name and address, but did not arrest him.

"You could be technical and say, 'I'm going to book him with possession of stolen property,' but then you have to find out who the owner is, find out whether that person had permission take that property," New Orleans Police Capt. Marlon Defillo said.
 
"So what we're generally doing is seizing the goods as found property and writing a report."

That way, he explained, authorities can return the goods if they figure out where they came from - rather than holding them as evidence pending the resolution of often drawn-out criminal cases.

In other homes, McGowan's unit found automatic teller machines that had been broken open and emptied of cash and bags of ammunition still packaged in 500-round bundles, not the individual boxes of 20 rounds usually sold over the counter.

A smashed-open video poker machine, likely taken from a bar, was left lying on the sidewalk of an Uptown residential street.

In a church-run assisted living home close to a heavily looted Wal-Mart in the lower Garden District, a team of guardsmen found new bicycles, stereos and clothing. Someone associated with the church, who refused to give his name, said at least seven rooms in the four-story residence were filled with goods believed to be stolen.

New Orleans police are storing seized loot in a makeshift warehouse near the city's train station, Defillo said. He declined to provide details on how many goods had been found, how many businesses or homes had been looted, or if authorities had any long-term plan to track down some of the culprits.

"We haven't even had time to deal with that yet," he said.

In other homes, McGowan's unit found automatic teller machines that had been broken open and emptied of cash and bags of ammunition still packaged in 500-round bundles, not the individual boxes of 20 rounds usually sold over the counter.

Last time I checked, we could still buy 500rd boxes of all sorts of ammo.

Kharn

Quoted: In other homes, McGowan's unit found automatic teller machines that had been broken open and emptied of cash and bags of ammunition still packaged in 500-round bundles, not the individual boxes of 20 rounds usually sold over the counter. Last time I checked, we could still buy 500rd boxes of all sorts of ammo. Kharn

Nope!  Didn't you hear?  500 rounds or more belongs in an armory now.

Quoted: Quoted: In other homes, McGowan's unit found automatic teller machines that had been broken open and emptied of cash and bags of ammunition still packaged in 500-round bundles, not the individual boxes of 20 rounds usually sold over the counter. Last time I checked, we could still buy 500rd boxes of all sorts of ammo. Kharn Nope!  Didn't you hear?  500 rounds or more belongs in an armory now.

Pathetic.  I have more than 500rds laying around loose in the back of my patrol car.  Guess this genius never bought a 500rd brick of 22LR at ChinaMart.


Sheep

Quoted: In other homes, McGowan's unit found automatic teller machines that had been broken open and emptied of cash and bags of ammunition still packaged in 500-round bundles, not the individual boxes of 20 rounds usually sold over the counter. Last time I checked, we could still buy 500rd boxes of all sorts of ammo. Kharn

What about when we get 1,000 rounds per packaged drop shipped directly to us?

Hopefully many of the looters can be ID'ed and prosecuted, and the lawfull owners of the merchandise identified.  In the end, the looters greed may have served a valuable salvage purpose.  

Quoted: Quoted: In other homes, McGowan's unit found automatic teller machines that had been broken open and emptied of cash and bags of ammunition still packaged in 500-round bundles, not the individual boxes of 20 rounds usually sold over the counter. Last time I checked, we could still buy 500rd boxes of all sorts of ammo. Kharn What about when we get 1,000 rounds per packaged drop shipped directly to us?

That action get's you put on the list.

How does one "Bundle" ammo?  I have this vision of lots of string and rubber bands.

Quoted: In other homes, McGowan's unit found automatic teller machines that had been broken open and emptied of cash and bags of ammunition still packaged in 500-round bundles, not the individual boxes of 20 rounds usually sold over the counter. Last time I checked, we could still buy 500rd boxes of all sorts of ammo. Kharn

I guess I think differently than you guys - when I read the sentence, I had visions of ATM's that dispensed ammo by the 500-round box.......



<----must not be awake yet.

Surely none of the dirtbags were flooded out of their rat hole, looted a bunch of crap, and stashed it in someone else's house (since that person had the good sense to evacuate earlier)...

For not looking for loot and "weapons caches" it sure sounds like our troops are doing just that.  And any white person with "loot" in their home better kiss his ass goodbye.  We will give the minorities a pass (just like Bush is) but you honkies are gonna pay.

... or he never bought 5000 rnds of XM193 from Ammoman.

Quoted: In other homes, McGowan's unit found automatic teller machines that had been broken open and emptied of cash and bags of ammunition still packaged in 500-round bundles, not the individual boxes of 20 rounds usually sold over the counter. Last time I checked, we could still buy 500rd boxes of all sorts of ammo. Kharn

Yeah, but 500rd boxes of say, Wally world whitebox (with Walmart tags on 'em, when WalMart doesn't put the actual case on display, but breaks it open and puts out individual 100rd boxes), next to a smashed open ATM????

Methinks the owner might have looted walmart...

Quoted: Hopefully many of the looters can be ID'ed and prosecuted, and the lawfull owners of the merchandise identified.

I'm guessing not becuase of the Fog of War.