

Beach theft - dionyziz
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beach_theft#Beach_theft_in_Jamaica

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michael_nielsen
Growing up, I lived on an isolated 4 acre block, surrounded by forest. The
only house nearby was an old house, built on stumps, a hundred meters or so
away, with no-one living in it. One day a truck showed up, a team of workers
put the house on the back of the truck, and took it away.

A year later detectives arrived at our house. They asked to speak to my
mother, and told her that the house next door had actually been stolen, and
the real owners were now looking for leads, hoping to find their stolen house.

~~~
andyjdavis
That reminded me of something that happened to a guy I went to high school.
Not quite as dramatic as your story but during the day when he was at school
and his parents were at work some guys backed a moving truck up to the house
and emptied the place.

This is in a city. The family in question weren't particularly friendly with
their neighbors but at least one neighbor saw the guys playing with the family
dog in the front yard and assumed all was well (as you probably would).

They apparently quickly got everything loaded up and were on their way. The
family came home to an essentially empty house. It was very odd.

~~~
BorisMelnik
was the dog OK?

~~~
andyjdavis
The dog was fine. If anything I suspect it enjoyed the extra play time.

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praneshp
This is a problem in my home city of Chennai, India too. Not only is this a
monetary loss, people start building homes on these bodies killing off water
supply. [http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/chennai/Illegal-
sand-...](http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/chennai/Illegal-sand-mining-
caused-Rs-5200-cr-loss-to-govt-PUCL/2013/10/10/article1828363.ece)

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trhway
>The bulk of the sand in the 0.5-hectare beach, of approximately 500
truckloads, was found missing in July 2008

10000 tons - an amount of sand that could have been brought by a midsize ship
from a place like Morocco/Sahara (if we discard any other closer sources). At
$20/mt that would be $200K - may be more expensive than real estate price of
the beach, yet considering overall value of the beach for the society...

~~~
wavefunction
It's Jamaica, the beach's "value" is not shared with the greater Jamaican
society. Maybe if it were the sand would still be there.

~~~
EdwardDiego
> It's Jamaica, the beach's "value" is not shared with the greater Jamaican
> society.

Can you please expand on this? I read it to mean that Jamaican beaches are
often privatised and off-limits to the public. Is that correct?

~~~
wavefunction
There are two Jamaicas, one for the tourists (the Beach) and the rest which is
often quite poor and destitute. They mix as much as oil and water do, and the
natives are "discouraged" from interacting with the tourists other than in a
service role.

This is from personal experience and from extensive contact with Jamaican
service employees working in the US (worked for several months with imported
hotel staff from Jamaica when I was younger). These were some of the hardest
working folks I have ever met, working two or three jobs at the five-star
hotel we were employed at and saving up every single bit they could before
returning to Jamaica where their opportunities were even less.

~~~
EdwardDiego
> There are two Jamaicas, one for the tourists (the Beach) and the rest which
> is often quite poor and destitute. They mix as much as oil and water do, and
> the natives are "discouraged" from interacting with the tourists other than
> in a service role.

Man, that's sad, half the fun of travelling is the culture and people. Hell,
that sounds pretty damned colonial in mindset.

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koj
Hallsands in Devon, England was washed away in 1917 after thousands of tons of
gravel were dredged up offshore to build a Dockyard in Plymouth. The dredging
caused the level of the beach to drop leaving it unprotected from winter
storms. See:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallsands](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallsands)

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bronson
Thought for sure this was going to be an article about Martin's Beach.

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antidaily
[http://www.invw.org/article/benton-harbor-
michigan-1280](http://www.invw.org/article/benton-harbor-michigan-1280)

