Photos: Spilled Doritos chips wash up on Outer Banks

First thing you need to notice the only 2 types of Doritos are (the most popular) the ones(or the first two that were made) on the beach. Secondly, a freight container is not air tight and would not have washed up on shore. It would have sunk. Third, The Department of Health would not allow Frito to resell these items due to the high pollutants that can come from the ocean. Fourth, Who cares! it is free food, They are air tight so no contaminants can get in. If you don't believe me fly to Utah where one of their factories are and take a tour. I have and I can assure you, that is one of the tings they test for leaky bags. leaky bags mean stail chips mean no business mean bankrupt. if that is not simple enough for you then apparently you like to complicate things a bit.

Please. This is so obviously an ad. They'll probably "reveal," (as if we didn't know) this on the superbowl or something. The shore pictures couldn't possibly look more glossy or adsy. The Doritos bags just happened to fall out of the boxes and spread perfectly over the sand? Sure. And the story is about how residents came to pick up the free bags in doritos "airtight containers." Adsy language plus adsy pictures= ad.

if you find somthing you do not give it to some one you keep it for your self and famly or friendes and your lunch if its eat abl.

Come on guys the really deal here where is the freight company who lost the container, every freight company has a list of container, how come they haven't reported it missing. There is absolutely nothing wrong with free food.

The container is numbered, what is in the container is inventoried. The owner has no dobt what happened to the shipment. They are likely trying not to be associated with it

Most people seem to assume that the chips are being salvaged for later use. This is not true.
The people on Hatteras Island depend on tourism to keep the island going. Tourist like a pristine beach and most people on the "Island" work to keep the it clean.
Not much else to do there in the winter. Restaurants close around thanksgiving and don't reopen until late March.

How can you call grabbing some bags of Doritos greed? If you were to give them back to Frito lay, they would just throw them away. They have been on the beach and in the ocean and are unsafe to put back on the markets. You could not give these away to homeless either because Hatteras Island does not have any homeless, and I don't think that even the homeless would try to live off of potato chips. And whoever said that people need to get lives must not understand that during the winter months, there is absolutely nothing to do on Hatteras Island. There are no malls or parks or any means of entertainment, unless you find listening to all of the island gossip (which there is more than enough of) fun.

Bob is right. The chips are up for grabs. There is a lot about Maritime Law and Admiralty Rights that is not analagous to US law.

If anything, the container was insured. Even the shipowner/master are probably exempt from any liability since the storm, wheere it was lost, could be considered and "Act of God."

Google it. Heck, wikipedia probably has a good article on it.

To me, I am just grateful that people went and got the trash off the beach. I really don't care what they did with it after that. That mess was an environmental danger and a hazard to the local ecosystem. I am just glad people came to help. I suppose the only ethical solution would have been to give them back to the company. They are no more theirs to give away to the needy than they are for them to keep. Practically, however, it is unrealistic to try to accomplish this. I am just glad they are off the beach. If any of you have been to the Outer Banks following the Fourth of July, this is similar to what the beach looks like. The people who volunteer to clean-up the miles of our trash after that event our wonderful, and I would suspect, many of those who were there for the chips. No one complains when people volunteer to pick-up spent bottle-rockets and metal sparklers.

I used to volunteer at a local canned food bank. You wouldn't believe how much food we were required to throw away simply because of food contamination guidelines. If a can was dented, we had to throw it away - regardless. I used to take home albacore tuna and crab meat simply because they were going to throw it away. I guarantee Frito Lay would have been in plenty of trouble if they tried to sell those chips or even give them away to the homeless. They are just bags of chips, people!!! They aren't TVs. They aren't DVD players. It is cheap food!!! Do you think the people at Frito-Lay are going, "What? They stole all our chips from the container??? Nooooooo!!!! How will we ever recover???"

I am with you Bob, get the real wrong doers. This banter just goes to show how much time some have on their hands. I say Merry Christmas to those that got a a few bags of chips. I think the real crimes are those against others. You all need to lighten up and get a bag of chips. They may show up at your Christmas party!

Oh please.
First of all it was a small but costly error by the shipping co.
Now should the tax payers have to foot this bill too, the one to clean up the beach?
Let those take the spoils of a marintine oops, that's what insusance is for, and why we all pay top dollar.

"Those Doritos belong to the shipping company and Frito Lay.. Come on people get a life. "

What in the world would Frito Lay want with them now? I don't want to pay for those chips in a store... They were washed up from the OCEAN. And I agree with your statement begging people to get a life, but I think it would be better suited if aimed towards everyone that made themselves sick over human greed and scattered chips. Want to save the world? Start investing your time in a worthwhile cause; bitching on the internet isn't going to move mountains.

It's called HUMAN NATURE - right wrong or indifferent, ALL human acts are motivated by self - interest. Period. I'm not saying it's right, just saying humans make decisions based upon by a sense of self gratification. If it weren't true, there'd be no purpose in having organized law and order which necessitates a need for deterence. In this case, the law of nature superceded the law of mankind...since nobody knew who the chips belong too...and there was no likelihood of being caught, nature won. Please don't pretend you're somehow exempt from nature's laws.

I AGREE WITH YOU LISA. I am not surprised at all. I agree they are scavengers. It sickens me that people in this world think that something is owed to them, like they paid there dues. Anything for free. Even if I was a bum, I would have to humble myself to take one bag, but I would because I was hungry, not because I am greedy and let me take everything I want. Did anyone think of collecting some of them and giving them to the homeless to have something to eat. Some people are selfish and I am sick of it. To me they are thieves. I have seen it many times. In California during the riots. People rioted and looted stores because they are thieves. Nobody put signs on the stuff and said Im free take one. Honest people don't steal. Look at New Orleans. Those Doritos belong to the shipping company and Frito Lay.. Come on people get a life.

How much fun..some of you need to lighten up..

How strange would it be if there actually WERE people out "scavenging" after an oil spill?! Running down the beach with big rubber gloves scooping the oil sludge into their plastic buckets.
It's more reasonable for doritos but still... how bad do your munchies have to be to grab up all the soggy sandy chips just because they're free? "Dangerously Cheesy" should be "Dangerously sandy" or "Dangerously Soggy".

I work 5 miles away from where this happened and I'm telling you, it was not a mere "clean-up" effort. Some people were quite serious about taking home some free chips. One woman I talked to, went directly into the cargo container and took home 4 cases of Doritos! She encouraged me to do the same. I steered clear of the beach. In this season of giving, it makes me sad to see people reaching for something as simple as free chips with such wreckless abandon. It was a childish display of greed. I'm disappointed by some of my neighbors today. Who needs that many chips?

Also, no clean up effort would have been needed if they hadn't opened the cargo container to begin with. It wasn't theirs, and they had no place nosing around in it.

I wouldn't call them scavengers, as there was plenty to be had, but I wish I had talked to just one person who was going to give those chips away to a food drive. Who really needs a truckful of chips?

Who is going to clean up the container off the beach? How long before a storm sweeps it back out to sea? This is very dangerous.

Look out flea markets around town, the chips will be really cheap

Aside from the scavenger comment, we should also look at the hazard to navigation these containers are. They sometimes float just below the surface. The shipping companies should be held accountable.

I agree with Tara, these aren't scavengers, these are the people who always lend a hand and go out and start the "clean up" process. Do they look like people that need some washed up chips from the beach or folks who want their beach clean? Just a little jaded calling them "scavengers, isn't it?

Well the sea is still feeling the hungry ,now let clean up the beach be for we leave.

I was thinking more along the lines of people helping to clean up the beach.

It's nice to know that the sea still so bountifully provides food for us humans. And pre-packaged, too! Better on the shore than choking some poor sea turtles to death.

now thats snacking strong.