Hurricane Sandy Looting, Fights Plague South Brooklyn

Water that had risen six feet high hadn’t completely drained away from the streets of Coney Island in Brooklyn, N.Y., yet looters had already rifled through the remains of vulnerable shops on Mermaid Avenue.

At about 8 a.m. on Tuesday, workers arrived at Mega Aid Pharmacy to find that not only had Hurricane Sandy obliterated the building’s interior the night before, but thieves had broken in and gone through more than 10,000 pharmaceutical items. Most of the stolen goods were prescription meds.

“The water went away and these people started walking down the streets and just robbed stores,” a frustrated worker at the pharmacy, who wished to remain anonymous, told HuffPost Crime.

I grew up in Brooklyn and I am shocked..shocked I say!..to find there is looting going on here. Especially in that neighborhood. </sarcasm>

Naturally, in that environment, anyone who prepares against this sort of thing is considered a paranoid survivalist and, more importantly, is now a target for their generator and fuel. I fully expect some interesting stories and after action reports to start popping up on arfcom, Glocktalk, etc, etc.

Also, since it’s NYC, the good guys are usually without guns which makes fending off a bunch of looters a tricky exercise in melee tactics. Bouncing some rubber buckshot off the ground and into their legs would probably dissuade everyone real fast and keep the paperwork to a minimum.