I wish the Houston mayor could implement special punishments

[TexasBushwhacker]

For people who victimize evacuees. There are people, wearing wet clothes and carrying their children and/or pets who have been held up by armed robbers. That is a special kind of low.

In my apartment complex, which is mostly dry but is flooded in (no exit/no entrance), there was a guy running around yelling "Evacuate! You have 1 hour! The levee (2 miles away) broke! There's going to be 5 feet of water!".

Now, I don't know who he was. Never seen him before. He said he was just "helping" the fire department.

I don't know if he's nuts, mistaken or planning on looting empty apartments, but we have plenty of elderly residents here who were panicking. I got the phone and called 311 and told them where we were and what was going on. They said they hadn't heard anything about it and patched me through to the cops, who were also incredulous. They gave ne the number to the county Office of Emergency Management who also said the levee had not ruptured. I got my brother checking too. But for a couple of hours people were UPSET. What a fucking jerk.

[marybourg]

1. That's an awful story.

One terrible person can almost negate all the wonderful work done by people from all over who've been risking their lives to save complete strangers. I hope he was one of a very small number.

[TexasBushwhacker]

6. The good news is that I got to know my neighbors better

I mentioned that I had steaks in the freezer and rum in the cabinet. My upstairs neighbor came down later and asked if he could get a little coffee ... and rum - LOL.

[marybourg]

8. That's good. I hope that's the part that stays with you. nt

[radius777]

2. agree, there should be federal laws also

that make it a more serious crime than those committed in 'regular' (non-crisis) times.

because crisis situations are in essence federal/fema situations.

[bluepen]

3. Interesting idea. Maybe make it effective in areas

where a natural disaster area has been declared. I guess there'd have to be a duration as well.

Never heard this idea before. Something to think about, for sure.

[TexasBushwhacker]

4. I just found out there are more extreme punishments

for crimes like robbery, burglary etc that are commited during a declared emergency.

[LeftInTX]

5. I read about that. You weren't alone

It is a scam.

I read something about increasing the penalities.
Sorry about the source:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/08/29/houston-combating-harvey-looters-with-mandatory-jail-time.html

[TexasBushwhacker]

9. Don't forget, a lot of people carry hundreds in cash during emergency situations

So that you have a way to pay for stuff if power goes down and they can't take credit cards.

[JI7]

7. fucked up. take pictures if you can .

[Sunlei]

10. up the looting charge from 2-5 years to 2 to life. good thing is there is a curfew 12pm to 5am.

[SergeStorms]

11. No matter how much people are suffering.....

there's always a certain few loathsome individuals who will prey on the victims of a natural disaster.

You should have asked that guy how he's related to Donald Trump, because Trump is one of those loathsome individuals who would do something like that. No empathy, no integrity, no sense of right or wrong, just their sense of enriching themselves from others' misery.

And you're completely correct. There need to be MUCH tougher penalties for looting and robbing people during a natural disaster. The National Guard always says looters will be shot on sight. I don't know if that's a hollow threat, or if they mean it, but it's something that SHOULD be enforced!