Lighter. The main point in your first post reads:

I suspect that the photographer asked the people where they got the stuff, and one said "Um, we found it outside the store" and the other, maybe more truthfully, said "Everybody was grabbing things so I just took what I needed."

I note you refer to the photographer in the singular and suggest he asked the two people. Given that one pic and caption was sourced by Yahoo via AFP and the other via AP, I do think you reasoning is unlikely.

t is possible of course that 2 photographers/writers may have done the same thing but it does seem to me that you are ignoring certain facts.