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Pastimes : An Eye for an Eye -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GROUND ZERO™ who wrote (266)	9/21/2001 1:45:10 PM
From: David Alon	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 505

'Grave robbers' looted shops under towers by Valentine Low in New York Shops and restaurants in the underground mall beneath the World Trade Center were looted in the days after last Tuesday's terrorist attack, it was reported today. Theft: looting was reported in the shops under the World Trade Center More on this Story New York victims now thought to be 6,333 Actors take pay cut to stop curtain falling Today's Top News Bin Laden 'fleeing to Somalia' Bush tells armed forces: Be ready Net widens to cover Bin Laden aides Paris embassy attack is foiled More planes head to Gulf New York detectives are investigating whether the looting, discovered by the National Guard, was carried out by rescue workers in the wake of the disaster. A warren of wide subterranean passageways beneath number 5 World Trade Center somehow survived the collapse of the twin towers, and it is believed the looting started soon after the fires in the upper storeys of the building were put out. Captain Vincent J Heintz, a commander in the New York National Guard, said the looting carried on into this week. "There have been people down here trying to steal from a mass grave," he said. "They are grave robbers." The looters picked through a Tourneau watch shop, raided cases of designer sunglasses in another store, tried to prise open at least one cash register and even got into the service room behind a row of cashpoint machines. However, the steel safes prevented them from making off with any money. Two men, one of them a former prison officer who was posing as a police officer, have already been charged with stealing two watches from the Tourneau shop. The intact shops and restaurants one level below ground were likened by the New York Times to a modern Pompeii - a moment in the life of New York frozen in time. The paper described how inside Sunglass Hut International, an employee's breakfast - "three link sausages and a moldy entree with a fork standing upright" still stood on the counter beside the cash register. The news-stands still hold stacks of the papers from the morning of the attack. At the cashpoint a customer's receipt for a $100 withdrawal - made at 8.51am on 11 September - protruded from the machine. Daniel Castleman, chief of the district attorney's investigations division, said the looting appeared to be limited to a few shops under one building. "It's not a situation of everyone walking in and stuffing their pockets," he said. "It could be one guy who was very determined, and got his hands on some merchandise. At this point we don't have evidence of who it was, when it was, or precisely what was taken, and the police department, understandably, has taken an interest in it." Deputy police commissioner Thomas Antenen said: "We arrested two looters last week, and have received these reports of other missing property. We are looking into it." Captain Heintz said: "They could have been police officers, they could have been firefighters, they could have been contractors or National Guardsmen." They were, however, unlikely to have been civilians, because it is virtually impossible for unauthorised people to get through the strict security surrounding the site. Platoon leader, 2nd Lt Peter Fluker, said: "It was calculated. It was done with crowbars and heavy equipment and some sharp, blunt objects that were used to smash open big doors and jewellery cases. They were rescue workers of some sort." thisislondon.com