U.S. government investigating the reports of MREs meant for victims of hurricanes being sold on ebay

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WASHINGTON - Uncle Sam has tried to feed millions of hurricane victims this year with Meals-Ready-to-Eat, or MREs, only to fear that some of them have become Meals-Ready-for-eBay.

The government is looking into whether eBay sellers in Gulf Coast states are trying to profit from military foodstuffs handed out for free following hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma.

Representatives for eBay, the online auctioneer company, say it is impossible to prove that any of the meals were meant for hurricane victims. They note that MREs can be bought in camping stores and Army-Navy surplus outlets.

But at least some of the MREs advertised on the Web site are being sold from Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida and other Gulf states, and are individually packaged with a disclaimer that clearly notes: "U.S. Government property — Commercial resale is unlawful."

"If it's true, that's pretty reprehensible," said Cheryl Guidry Tyiska, deputy director of the National Organization of Victim Assistance. "There are a lot of pretty hungry people down there who could use the food for free."

One seller, identified as from "Louisiana Cajun Country," described being hit "with the eye of Rita." Bidding had reached $50.99 for the seller's unopened case of MREs by Saturday.

i guess selling MREs dat are free for more money gets u somewhere wen u are in devastated areas. dont know if its moral to sell wats being givin to u to help u out. unless u can handle the empty stomach for awhile while waiting for the money to come to u so u can go to restaurants to eat luxury food.

I think the focus should be more on the buyers and not the sellers. Why would anyone want to pay $50.99 for an un-opened case of MRE?

People will always profit from tragdy.

Take the saying "money for old rope", that refers to the hangmans right to make money on the side by selling pieces of the rope used to hang people.

The trouble was, if you laid all these pieces of rope together, they would often reach 100's of yards in length

And in this lies the problem, if you can buy MRE's else where and pass them off as being from the "katrina gift shop".....

....Damn it I'm thinking about doing it now.

But do you get the point?

People will always try and profit from this type of incident, and they will almost always get found out because they get gready.

So I might buy a Katrina MRE to go next to my genuine piece of the Berlin Wall.

Or I might just let the goverment profit, there one a head. It's not like they spent alot on clearing things up.

CabalX

CabalX do you realise how big an operation this is?! Of course they've spent alot on attempting to clear things up but things like this don't just clear themselves up if you chuck huge amounts of money at it.

People will always profit from tradegy yes, but this is just part of some people's human nature. Thousands of years ago say you walked past someone's home which has good building materials and tools, but you realised that the family had been wiped out by disease or some kind of disaster. Would you hesitate to pick up the tools and salvage items from their home for your own advantage?

That just sickens me, when down in Baton Rouge I talked to people who said they were only gettng one meal a day. And here are conning scammers selling some thing they got for free...

Phixion, I understand exactly how much of a big operation had been put in place. It's not like I've been living under a rock all year.

I just do't think everything could have been done to help in the areas that where hit. I thought,.. IN MY OPNION, (see how I gotta put that in all in caps now).

My post was meant as an indication, that, this is human nature and it has been happening for thousounds of years, things don't change.

The way I see it, if goverment can spend billons on a war to keep there ideals safe. Then why not reach down behind the Whitehouse coach (of course when the commander and cheif has finshed his nap) and pull out some plans that don't involve taking over one country and actually takes care of your on.

Also, I think this operation did need money thrown at it, not now, but a twenty years ago. TThink about tidal power and wind farms.

Invest money in these and hopefully we'll leave somthing behind that the guys on capitial hill, can fight over in a 100 years time.

Cabalx

Originally posted by ADVISOR
That just sickens me, when down in Baton Rouge I talked to people who said they were only gettng one meal a day. And here are conning scammers selling some thing they got for free...

Tottaly agree, but unfortuantly it does happen. And I suspect always will.

CabalX

Very true CabalX. i always think to myslef "hey you can spend billions on a war, a war means killing people, why can't you spend the same amount of money saving people", surely something isn't right there...

I think it's just one of the meny evils of the world. We can put so much time and resources into wiping each other out.

Then again if the united states goverment sold wind turbines or solar power cells. Rather than fighter planes and tanks.

The world would be a whole lot nicer place.

CabalX