Saturday, December 02, 2006

Chip wreck

Hatteras Island is famous for its shipwrecks. But Thursday locals experienced their first ever "chip-wreck".

A cargo container loaded with thousands of bags of Doritos Tortilla Chips washed ashore on the beach near Frisco and broke open.

The container apparently fell off a ship. The chips scattered for about a half a mile, and some even floated as far north as the Bonner bridge.

Arley Spake photographed the broken container. Spake works for Frito-Lay, the company that makes Doritos. His wife Janice joined him at water's edge.

"It was really weird," said Spake. (Arley) was taking pictures for Frito-Lay, we still don't know what happened. Lots of Doritos, lots of people putting them in garbage bags."

Many of the chips were sealed and still edible. Dozens of people were seen gathering the chips and taking them off the beach. Jessica Maxfield, who is doing an internship with the National Park Service, grabbed a couple of bags.

"I was doing a bird survey. The gulls love the Doritos."

The National Park Service does not like the Doritos, however; the beach is protected. The container is now at the National Park Service maintenance area.

As for the accident, it's still unclear which ship lost the cargo or to which port it was being shipped.

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