A contractor’s road work site in Albania was overrun and ransacked by looters during severe civil disturbances in March 1997. It is estimated that two-thirds of the country’s adult population had lost much of their savings to Ponzi schemes in which government officials were said to be complicit. Waves of rioting battered the country. Hundreds of people were killed. The government fell. Disorder was everywhere — particularly in the southern region where the work site was located. Neither public nor private security forces could withstand the onslaught of looting. The contractor’s site at Bushtriza was in a remote location. The nearest police station was distant. The contractor’s on-site private security personnel were overwhelmed. What equipment could not be stolen was destroyed.