Tide of Cigarettes Lures Smokers to Dutch Beach
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CALLANTSOOG, Netherlands — Smokers are flocking to this beach resort in search of booty: cartons and cartons of cigarettes that washed up on the beach.
“There are cigarettes as far as the eye can see,” police spokesman Wil Wiegers said Wednesday. “We’re knee-deep in them.”
Thousands of beachcombers have come to the northern Dutch shore for a share of the bounty blown off the German-owned freighter Hamburg Star on the stormy North Sea this week.
A 13-mile stretch was carpeted with cellophane-wrapped cartons, many still dry inside, Wiegers said. The Amsterdam newspaper De Volkskrant reported Wednesday that 18 containers with 10 million cigarettes each were swept from the freighter.
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