If disaster struck, where would you draw the line between seeking necessities (scavenging) and theft (looting), especially when your family’s well-being or survival is at stake? Here is what you need to know to decide for yourself. Whether you’re driven by the need for essentials or safeguarding your family’s safety, understanding this about yourself will help you make a choice you can live with in the aftermath.
Even if you’ve planned well, a big enough disaster can bring unexpected shortages, like the 2020 toilet paper scarcity. I discovered we had enough TP to last the next couple of weeks but not much longer. While it certainly wasn’t a matter of life and death, these situations tap into our primal instinct to survive.
During the early months of COVID lockdowns and shortages, we had the most essential resources like food, water, and shelter, but worldwide, there are disasters that leave people without these necessities. People become desperate. In such dire situations, the line between scavenging and looting can blur. Both cases involve acquiring resources, but motivations, implications, and ethical considerations are very different. If you’re in a tough situation and faced with scavenging, looting, or protecting your stuff, what choices will you make, and how will you handle it?
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What is the difference between looting and scavenging?
Looting, fueled by greed, disregards others’ hardships and is both unethical and illegal. In contrast, scavenging, driven by the need for survival, often legally prioritizes essential needs over personal gain, with some individuals leaving IOUs or offering compensation. Let’s unpack that a little.
Looting
Looting is stealing during disasters or riots or other types of emergencies. It’s usually a crime of opportunity that is driven by greed, pure and simple, with a disregard for anyone else. Nothing altruistic like, “I need these Nikes for my poor, bedridden grandmother,” and no consideration is given to the plight of the person who owns the property being looted. It’s no wonder that people begin guarding their homes and businesses after a disaster like Hurricane Katrina.
Looting is not only unethical – what could be worse than victimizing people who are already desperate – it’s also illegal. It violates property rights, is theft, and often involves property damage as well.
So, if a desperate person is looking for fresh water, food, or maybe a blanket, is that looting, or might it fall in the scavenging category?
Scavenging
Scavenging is motivated by the fundamental need for survival, not greed. It’s often legal, especially in times of crisis, as it prioritizes basic needs over personal enrichment. Many people who scavenge for supplies in order to survive will leave an IOU or even a bit of cash to avoid outright theft. Some have been known to return to the property owner much later and offer compensation for what they had taken.
While scavenging may not be inherently illegal, there is definitely a blurry line between it and looting. After all, if it’s your supply of water bottles being taken, for example, your point of view may differ from the person looking for fresh water to stay alive.
Even though scavenging may meet the “necessary to stay alive” criteria, it’s crucial to be aware of local laws and regulations surrounding property ownership and resource usage. Once a degree of normalcy returns and rebuilding after a disaster is well on its way, homeowners and business owners can pursue a return of property and compensation through legal means, even if the perpetrators viewed their actions as “scavenging” and not “looting.”
Are either ethical?
Even in the face of despair, there are ethical considerations to keep in mind. Looting disregards the suffering of others and undermines the sense of security of everyone in the community. It can deprive individuals and businesses of their belongings, hinder recovery efforts, and exacerbate the overall impact of the disaster.
Scavenging can be an ethical way to meet basic needs. It involves taking only what is necessary and leaving enough for others. Food, water, medical supplies, and shelter materials take precedence over luxury items, which is often the goal of looters.
Pro Tip
Figure out your values regarding this before you’re in a high-stakes situation. It’s easier to make clear decisions when you’ve thought about it beforehand.
Questions to Consider Before Scavenging
Ask yourself these questions before heading out to scavenge:
- Have authorities issued any restrictions on movement?
- If you might be on private property, are you ready and willing to deal with the ramifications?
- Is there a way you can give compensation for whatever you might take?
- Might the scavenged supplies be contaminated?
- Am I respecting the property rights of others?
- Is there a better, safer way to get what I/we need?
- Are there any community efforts underway to supply what I need?
Frequently Asked Questions
Legality varies, but dumpster diving can be legal in some places. Research local regulations beforehand.
Stockpile essentials, be aware of local laws, and consider community support to ensure ethical and responsible preparation for disasters.
Prioritize basic needs, respect property rights, and consider legal alternatives before making decisions that impact others during challenging times.
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Final Thoughts
While both scavenging and looting involve acquiring resources, the motivations, implications, and ethical considerations are vastly different. In a time of crisis, know the difference so your decisions keep you and your loved ones alive while respecting the property and lives of others around you.
looting- something someone else does.
Scavengeing- Something you do.
After Katrina, even New Orleans police officers were shown on video looting flooded, abandoned chain discount stores for non-essentials, and they were later prosecuted. Be careful what you take and from where. Looting is an illegal act, and does not have to be done after smashing a window. It is also done be walking in the front door. It is the same as shoplifting. Scavenging is taking something already given up by its owner voluntarily or as a result of an event beyond the owner’s control, such as weather, flooding, or earthquake, and the owner cannot be determined.
Try a dictionary?
Loot – steal goods during a time of war or riot. The distinction you’re trying to make between stealing flat screen TVs and baby formula doesn’t exist.
Scavenge – search for and collect (anything usable) from discarded waste. Scavenging is what you’re doing if looking for treasures at your local landfill, in dumpsters, or garbage cans left at the curb.
The definitions don’t change based on the wants or needs of the person doing the taking. It sounds to me like you’re trying to make the moral argument that stealing to preserve life is justified, if so then I think most people would generally agree with that – at least up until it’s their goods getting “scavenged”.
Justin- I understand your definitions and don’t disagree.
In my mind, looting is taking something that is temporarily abandoned, with the motive of profiting.
scavenging is taking something that is permanently abandoned, with the motive of surviving.
Why didn’t anyone think to leave a check or money for what they took?
To feed a baby a mother will steal and that is human nature.
We have courts to decide these matters but survival is first and profiteering is another thing.
If you’re talking about Omega Man type of societal breakdown, that’s one thing.
If you’re talking about surviving in the face of a natural disaster, that’s another.
Swiping stuff is still swiping stuff.
If it’s not essential to your survival, then it’s not essential.
Common sense people… If there is a National breakdown of catastrophic proportions you will change your prospective. If it looks abandoned, scope it out first anyhow for safety sake. If deemed an appropriate action go inside. Say you find baby food and your kid is starving. By all means have at the baby food. If you think things may someday get better and you feel all bad inside feel free to leave your name and a promise to return and make it right. Don’t feel obligated to taint the purpose of this message because you want to think you are better than everyone else. You will not be any better than us when the day comes. I bet those of us with common sense will be better prepared to deal with questionable ethics than those who pretend to be ethical now. Get ready your mind and realize that survival isn’t going to be pretty with FEMA trucks driving around handing out candy.
A useful test is to ask if you want to be tried by 12 or carried by 6.
It’s a moral question which is often used when weighing up self defence scenarios. It helps you work out if your life is really in so much danger you would cross lines that you usually wouldn’t.
Of course it’s an analogy, we could be be in a scenario where there is no justice, no jury courts and funerals of 6 pall bearers are a thing of the past where a body tossed into a mass grave or roadside ditch is the nearest thing to a burial that you could hope for.
But the question is a good thing to reflect on when making decisions and remember, God is still watching even if the police aren’t!
In 1988 I was in Cancun when Hurricane Gilbert, a Cat 5, struck a direct hit. Our entire hotel was evacuated to a small enclosed shopping mall about a mile inland. Needless to say conditions deteriorated quickly and by day two the supllies brought by the hotel started to run out. In the mall was a mini mart. I decided to break the lock and distribute water and sodas. The hotel told me to stop as they said I was looting. I shot back that they should record everything taken and then reimburse the mini mart. Two days later we were allowed to return to the severely damaged hotel. Was I a looter? I don’t feel like it. What I did helped preserve calm in a stressful situation.
Pro tip: Stay the hell off property that does not belong to you unless there are so few people left that you KNOW the property is now abandoned. I don’t care if you are alone or with ten people, to me, it’s just a matter of which ones get picked off first when found on my property.
Besides those that lived through events like Katrina or the earthquake in China most can not say that they have had to make the distinction between looting and scavenging in this day and age. If I was were a total disaster had happened and I was having to make my way to safety or keep my family safe until help could arrive I would use all resources available to me. The grocery store down the road that has been torn open by a hurricane most items already not in what would be considered salvageable sell-able condition, then it would all be heading to the trash when and if the owners came back anyway, I will take what I can find now to use for my immediate needs. I am not looting for profit, taking a sell-able item with the plan of waiting until things are back to normal to sell it to make money. I am taking something to use right now to extend or improve my families condition. I do not think of this as stealing.
Whether it’s something you don’t need is irrelevant. Taking something that isn’t yours is stealing. If it’s clearly abandoned, it’s scavenging.
There may be occasions where you may feel that you can morally rationalize that it is OK to take something to keep yourself alive. It’s easy to say you’d never do it, but given the choice between letting a family member starve and stealing, most will take what they need.
If the owner catches you and decides to string you up, that may well be the price you pay. It’s a tough old world
We’ve seen here in Chicago just what the difference is between looting and scavenging: looting is the teens carrying televisions out of storefronts, while scavenging is what the filth on our streets does in the dumpsters behind what few restaurants we have left downtown. “But what if you need baby food?” is a canard.
Chicago will never learn, sad to say.