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Note: This episode originally aired in 2018
In 2008, an entire beach in a remote part of Jamaica disappeared. Thieves dug up hundreds of tons of sand in the middle of the night and hauled it away in dump trucks. The sand—white, fine Caribbean sand—was worth about a million dollars.
It was an early sign of a growing problem facing the world. Sand is a key ingredient in all kinds of products. It’s in concrete, in glass, in your cell phone. But there’s not enough sand in the world for everyone, and it’s running out. So people are stealing it, smuggling it, and even dying from it.
Today on the show, we follow a sand detective on his quest for a stolen beach. There’s a helicopter chase, death threats, and even a little sand forensics. The Queen of England gets in on the action. But stolen sand is hard to find, and even harder to get back.
music: “Black Surf Duel” and”Running around“”.
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