Sand thieves beware – your beachfront property may be shut down and turned into a crime scene if you steal sand on Cancun Beach. That is exactly what happened recently as surprised tourists found their little piece of Cancun beach paradise ringed by crime-scene tape and gun-toting sailors.
Environmental enforcement officers backed by Mexican navy personnel closed off hundreds of feet of powder-white coastline in front of a hotel accused of illegally accumulating sand on its beach.
While this may seem ironic or even idiotic, keep in mind that Mexico spent $19 million to replace Cancun beaches washed away by Hurricane Wilma in 2005. However it seems that much of that sand pumped from the sea floor has since washed away, leading some property owners to build breakwaters in a bid to retain sand.
“Today we made the decision to close this stretch of ill-gotten, illegally accumulated sand,” said Patricio Patron, Mexico’s attorney general for environmental protection. “This hotel was telling its tourists: ‘Come here, I have sand … the other hotels don’t, because I stole it.”‘
Patron said five people were detained in a raid for allegedly using pumps to move sand from the sea floor onto the beach in front of the Gran Caribe Real Hotel. The hotel is also suspected of illegally building a breakwater that impeded the natural flow of sand onto other hotels’ beaches, he said.
So if thought it was okay to take or in the eyes of Mexican authorities – steal sand in Cancun, think again. You may just find yourself the subject of a crime scene.
Original story at Fox News.
