Travellers looking for ‘souvenirs’ have been accused of putting people’s lives at risk by stealing crocodile warning signs.
In Broome, for example, eight signs warning beachgoers to avoid the water have been stolen from the shire in the past 12 months. Some of those include fixed signs ripped out of the ground.
“People aren’t made aware that there are crocodiles in the area and that puts them at risk of being attacked,” Broome Shire’s Emergency, Health and Rangers manager, Ty Matson, told the ABC. “Our concern is not so much the signs themselves, it’s that the message is not getting out there for people.”
The risk is not insignificant either. Crocodiles up to three metres long are common in the area and swimming spots are regularly closed due to sightings. The ABC reports that the town’s famous Cable Beach has been closed twice in the past week due to crocodile sightings.
“People do go to great lengths to source those signs but I would ask if they could source them commercially somewhere else and leave our signs out there to warn the general public,” said Mr Matson. “If you think of that as being eight individual times that people were being put at risk, it is quite significant.”
· While many grey nomads love to collect souvenirs that remind them of a particular place and time, or a specific event, these are generally not stolen! What are your most treasured or unusual souvenirs? Comment below.
