Looters taking advantage of B.C. fires are typical at natural disasters: expert
VANCOUVER — As if the risk of losing their homes isn’t enough, wildfire evacuees in British Columbia have faced the additional threat of looters searching through their belongings after they rushed to safety.
Rob Gordon, a criminologist at Simon Fraser University in Surrey, B.C., says looting is an unfortunate but routine part of virtually every natural disaster, from fires to floods, hurricanes to earthquakes.
“It’s predatory behaviour of the worst kind,” Gordon said, adding that looters are opportunists.
“There is nothing especially organized. People just see a chance to make off with somebody else’s possessions, and they’ll do it if they can get away with it.”