Jan 6, 2009 7:17 pm US/Eastern
Charity Collects Shoes Dumped On Palmetto
Highway Patrol Says Traffic Snarl Was Caused By "Lost Load"
NORTH MIAMI-DADE (CBS4) ―
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They appeared, seemingly out of nowhere Friday morning: thousands of shoes scattered in the southbound lanes of the Palmetto Expressway.
CBS
They appeared, seemingly out of nowhere Friday morning: thousands of shoes scattered in the southbound lanes of the Palmetto Expressway, snarling rush-hour traffic and creating a mystery as to their origin.
The Florida Highway Patrol concluded Tuesday that the shoes were most probably a "lost load" from a truck, and had spilled through the door of an unlocked cargo container.
FHP lieutenant Pat Santangelo said it "probably wasn't worth it" for the shoes' owner to retrieve them.
"It would have cost more than they were worth," Santangelo said.
The FHP's conclusion closes the book on speculation the shoes may have been deposited as some sort of political statement. An Iraqi reporter threw his shoes at President Bush last month, and subsequent demonstrations in Tehran, London and other cities have featured shoe-throwing protesters. The shoe protests were parodied in Coconut Grove's whacky King Mango Strut parade by a fellow whacking a President Bush look-alike with a loafer.
The shoes from the Palmetto expressway were given Tuesday to the charity group Soles4Souls. The organization distributes shoes to the disadvantaged in under-developed countries. The group estimates there are 2,000 pairs of shoes - loafers, boots, sandals, slippers - in the pile that was bagged and boxed up Tuesday and put on a truck bound for the charity's processing facility in Tennessee.
The shoes are all used, dirty and scruffy but Elsey said, "The majority of these shoes are going to go on someone's feet. It's going to take a bit of cleaning and some repairing, but for somebody who has never had a pair of shoes, this is gold."
Elsey said his organization has distributed shoes to millions of people around the world.
"There are grown people in the Sudan, in Africa, in Mexico, who have never had a pair of shoes in their lives," Elsey said. The slogan on the side of the Soles4Souls truck being loaded Tuesday read, "Saving the world, one pair of shoes at a time."
The state gave the shoes to the charity rather than throw them in the dump.
The FHP said the expense of clearing the shoes off the expressway Friday with the use of front-end loaders was "considerable."
Santangelo said if the company responsible for losing the load is located, they will be billed for the clean-up costs and face possible fines.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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