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Beach sand theft is a growing problem, with demand for building materials and competition between hotels being possible motives. The theft of 1,300 feet of sand in Jamaica halted construction on a resort complex and can have environmental impacts. Greek authorities have banned tourists from taking pink sand samples to protect the beaches.
Thieves seem to be everywhere these days. They run copper wires out of buildings, catalytic converters out of under vehicles, and even avocados out of orchards. But you wouldn’t necessarily think that beach sand would be valuable enough to steal. Yet in 2008, someone with heavy equipment scooped 1,300 feet of white sand off a beach in Coral Springs, Jamaica. Police estimated the theft amounted to 400 truckloads of pristine beach. The crime was never solved, but most believe it was related to Jamaica’s building boom, as there is a huge demand for building materials. Another theory points to beach-related competition between the island’s hotels and resorts.
Psst! Do you want to buy some sand?
Beautiful beaches are valuable assets for resorts hoping to attract tourists. Sand theft halted construction on a $108 million resort complex in Coral Springs.
Removing sandy beaches can also have an environmental impact by changing water salinization, which affects nearby mangroves, forests and orchards.
Greek authorities have banned tourists from taking samples of pink sand at Elafonisi in Crete as color saturation levels dropped precipitously. Today, those pink beaches are just 10% of what they looked like 100 years ago.
