# \>$10 million in PPE abandoned in San Mateo, CA **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [January 15, 2022, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-million-in-ppe-abandoned-in-san-mateo-ca/957865 "2022-01-15T20:51:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2022, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-million-in-ppe-abandoned-in-san-mateo-ca/957865/1 "2022-01-15T20:51:05Z")
I wasn’t sure whether to post this here or in the Pit, so move it if you feel it’s appropriate. Anyway, I found this story while surfing You Tube last night, and the scope of it is visible at the end, in the drone shot, and the reporter said it’s even visible in some Google Earth shots. In short, hundreds of pallets (not boxes, PALLETS) of PPE and other equipment was left outside a civic center in San Mateo, CA, and authorities seem to be unwilling to answer some very pointed questions. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/RHFZJOmMkuE/maxresdefault.jpg "More than $10M worth of masks, protective gear left in the rain outside Bay Area event center") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHFZJOmMkuE) ---
**Author:** ![Bonum\_Legatum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bonum_legatum/32/6183_2.png) [@Bonum\_Legatum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bonum_Legatum)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2022, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-million-in-ppe-abandoned-in-san-mateo-ca/957865/2 "2022-01-15T22:19:44Z")
Possibly stuff that was on a ship waiting to be unloaded and was damaged? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2022, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-million-in-ppe-abandoned-in-san-mateo-ca/957865/3 "2022-01-15T22:23:11Z")
Was it supposed to be delivered to the civic center (except, you know, without the rain damage)? ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2022, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-million-in-ppe-abandoned-in-san-mateo-ca/957865/4 "2022-01-15T22:53:22Z")
It may have been a convenient location for the city (county?) to store that much inventory. They might not have any other spaces available. Now, for a second, ignoring the content of the video, the person doing it (Dan Noyes) kinda irritated me. He’s a journalist, he knows full well what trespassing is and “I’m a taxpayer I don’t need an invitation” (and similarly for refusing to shut off his camera) seemed like a jackass move. I’m very surprised the people he talked to didn’t simply refuse to talk other than to tell him he can leave or they’ll call the police. Just to be clear, I’m not in any way defending what happened to the PPE, I’m just saying I’m surprised he wasn’t booted from the property. I’m also curious, not that it makes a difference in any way, shape or form, if the dollar amounts they gave out are how much was spent on all those items or how much they’d cost for individuals to buy them at retail prices. Like when the police have a big drug bust and say it was $50,000 worth of drugs…sure, if you’re buying dime bags of it, but the person that’s buying it by the kilo isn’t paying those prices. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2022, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-million-in-ppe-abandoned-in-san-mateo-ca/957865/5 "2022-01-15T23:19:53Z")
I wasn’t thinking in terms of storage; I thought maybe that the city had plans to distribute it from there. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2022, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-million-in-ppe-abandoned-in-san-mateo-ca/957865/6 "2022-01-15T23:30:02Z")
I think that’s why they generally use the term “street value”. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2022, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-million-in-ppe-abandoned-in-san-mateo-ca/957865/7 "2022-01-16T04:33:15Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > I’m very surprised the people he talked to didn’t simply refuse to talk other than to tell him he can leave or they’ll call the police. > > Just to be clear, I’m not in any way defending what happened to the PPE, I’m just saying I’m surprised he wasn’t booted from the property. If TPTB had done that, then the newsroom would have run with the pictures they already had, PLUS talking about the stonewalling when the reported got booted (or worse, arrested). Can you imagine the shitstorm that would have raised? They knew better than to do that. ETA: > [@Joey\_P](#): > > It may have been a convenient location for the city (county?) to store that much inventory. They might not have any other spaces available. Why should they have even been willing to receive all that if all they could do is let it sit out in the rain for months? They might has well have told the shipper to just dump it all into Half Moon Bay. If it weren’t for ballsy reporters, we peons would never know any of these government clusterfucks that happen. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2022, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-million-in-ppe-abandoned-in-san-mateo-ca/957865/8 "2022-01-16T04:38:21Z")
I was just down near there today. That’s 30 minutes out of San Francisco. If I go back I’ll look for it. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2022, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-million-in-ppe-abandoned-in-san-mateo-ca/957865/9 "2022-01-16T04:40:04Z")
> [@Bullitt](#): > > I was just down near there today. That’s 30 minutes out of San Francisco.   Was it raining there any time recently? It sounds like all that stuff’s been rotting out there several months, and the rain was that storm that passed through several weeks ago. This story didn’t just happen yesterday. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2022, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-million-in-ppe-abandoned-in-san-mateo-ca/957865/10 "2022-01-16T04:41:13Z")
Not for several days. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2022, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-million-in-ppe-abandoned-in-san-mateo-ca/957865/11 "2022-01-16T07:23:47Z")
It sounds like the civic center couldn’t store the PPE for San Mateo any longer without being compensated, but San Mateo wasn’t stepping up to find other options. ---
**Author:** ![phs3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8491ac/32.png) [@phs3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phs3)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2022, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-million-in-ppe-abandoned-in-san-mateo-ca/957865/12 "2022-01-16T14:19:47Z")
And even then, it’s often crazy-inflated.