See, the powers that be should have had some checks and balances in place. Of all the lines I've stood in over the past few weeks, we have had to show proof that we resided in the affected areas. I guess the farther away you are from LA, folks think you are because YOU say you are. :rolleyes:

So, she got the $2500 that's for me and the other evacuees in Louisiana who haven't received anything from the ARC. (smh)


Update: I return to work next week! :eek: I'm still getting paid, so I guess I need to go back, huh? :confused: :D :p

http://www.oxfordpress.com/classifie...RINA_SCAM.html

Fake evacuee leaves donor feeling burned
By DAVID A. MARKIEWICZ
Cox News Service
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
ATLANTA — The last thing Lindsey Wilson wants is for people to stop helping victims of Hurricane Katrina.

But after her experience last week, she admits it will be hard for her to open up her door — and her heart.

"I've lost a little faith in humanity," said Wilson, a 22-year-old Georgia State student who was victimized by a Lithonia, Ga. woman claiming to be an evacuee from New Orleans.

Wilson went to the Red Cross center at Life University last Friday hoping to help an evacuee in need of a comfortable place to stay for a while, some food to eat and some clothes to wear.

She found Beretta Jo Hogg, 36, and her 8-year-old son, who had come to the center to claim some of the money being given to people displaced by the storm.

Wilson invited Hogg and her son to stay in her apartment.

But, Cobb County police say, Hogg's story was a hoax.

She actually had been living in Lithonia and then an apartment in Stone Mountain before being evicted two weeks ago, according to an employee at the apartment complex who identified herself as Tiffany.

Hogg was charged with the felony of theft by deception for accepting $1,300 set aside for hurricane victims from the Red Cross, police said. She remained in the Cobb County Jail on Tuesday on $2,850 bond.

Wilson, who bought Hogg and her son an air mattress, a comforter set, four or five T-shirts, shorts, underwear, shoes and toiletries at Wal-Mart, felt taken — but not because of the money she lost.

"I'm a college student. I don't have a lot of money or a lot of time," Wilson said. "But I had an extra room so I decided to take in a single mother.

"What I really wanted to do was help a child," she said. "I just wanted to quietly help someone piece their life back together."

Wilson believed Hogg's story until they got back to her home and Hogg went to bed early Friday night.

That's when Wilson began casually talking to Hogg's son, who told her he had been going to school in Stone Mountain and had not been in any floods or hurricane. He also said they had been evicted from their home.

"I wasn't even prying," Wilson said.

Hearing all that, Wilson went outside and called police on her cellphone.

Asked if she'd take in another evacuee, she said, "I hate to say it, but no. I'm a little jaded. It hurts. I try to function on the belief that people are inherently good, but after this ..."

Red Cross spokesman Bill Reynolds said he could not comment on the case because it is a police matter. But he said some fraud is inevitable in disaster relief situations.

"We know it's going to happen to a certain extent," he said. "Our focus in the early phase [of a relief operation] is to take care of those truly in need. It's unfortunate that some people are going to try and take advantage of the generosity of other people."

Said Wilson, who declined to have her photograph taken, "I don't want this to turn into a deterrent for other people."



DAMN YOU BERETTA!!! DAYUM YOU STRAIGHT TO HELL!!!!!

http://img.coxnewsweb.com/B/07/31/27/image_1827317.jpg

Booo to Beretta Jo Hogg
 

^^
:eek:
Oh. My. Jaysis.

Beretta Jo Hogg?
:rolleyes:
What was one's mamma smoking?

Beretta Jo!
 

^^^^^^^^
Somebody kick her for me. Reaaallly hard.

:(

Churchgoing Louisiana Grandma Jailed over Sausage w/ $50, 000 Bail:

Beretta gets an air mattress :mad: and Grandma Gets Jailed for 2 weeks :mad:

KENNER, Louisiana (Sept. 16) - Merlene Maten undoubtedly stood out in the prison where she has been held since Hurricane Katrina. The 73-year-old church deaconess, never before in trouble with the law, spent two weeks among hardened criminals. Her bail was a stiff $50,000.

Her offense?

Police say the grandmother from New Orleans took $63.50 in goods from a looted deli the day after Katrina struck.

Family and eyewitnesses insisted Maten was an innocent woman who had gone to her car to get some sausage to eat only to be mistakenly arrested by tired, frustrated white officers who couldn't catch younger looters at a nearby store.

Despite intervention from the nation's largest senior lobby, volunteer lawyers from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and even a private attorney, the family fought a futile battle for 16 days to get her freed.



Read the rest HERE

:mad: :mad: :mad:

I'm going to have to take a break from the news for a minute. I don't know how much more stupidity I can take!

Re: Booo to Beretta Jo Hogg
 

I'm not surprised. NJ Insurance Fraud office is still prosecuting people who committed simlar acts after 9/11.

Grandma was released, per the local news last night.

On the news this morning - a con artist from NJ said he was an evacuee and used most of his $2000.00 to buy a car. :mad:

Another conartist got a card for $360.00 and a week at a hotel. They showed the police taking him away to jail. He said he made a bad decision. I'm thinking -"um, yeah - you're going to jail for $360.00!":rolleyes: :mad:

ok, which agency is passing out these cards and are they checking anything before they do so?

well, the thing about it is that it's hard to check a lot of stuff considering the fact that most people have lost their records about themselves. i guess they're going on the honor system, although i've heard that there is a large amount of money set aside to prosecute those trying to fraud the system.

Agencies...
 

FEMA, the American Red Cross, and the Dept. of Labor

ETA: I'm not surprised. It's just like folks taking student loan funds to pay for things other than books and tuition (cars, homes, clothes, purses, etc).

Re: Agencies...
 

At least with student loans it is their own debt that they will have to repay. This is charity that they are squandering, while there are still many in need who have not received much help at all. :mad:

I would think that, at a minimum, social security numbers would be used to verify addresses.

True, but fraud is fraud.

Many still don't have addresses. SSNs were not asked for. Many left those in their homes as well. My cousin left his, but he was able to get to the Social Security office to make an order for another one.

I think most of the cases are probably out of Louisiana. Here, they checked ID before you were issued anything. That's probably why those not in shelters aren't receiving too much. :confused:

Government Gouging
 

^^^^
At the concert for Katrina victims that I went to, Pastor Kee was saying to get the cards people had to sign forms. The signature place is on the front of the form. The stipulations are on the back & people aren't reading them. They can't apply for government aid for the next 8-10 yrs for as little as $360.00. To me, $2000 really isn't that much when you have to start over from scratch. That's a horrid stipulation to put on something - of course people probably still would sign it because they're desperate right now. 8-10 yrs. *SM DARN H*

Yes, those forms had to be signed (just like anything). I'm not sure about the 8-10 years stipulation (didn't read the fine print), which I doubt.

As long as there are natural or man-caused disasters, the victims will get some compensation. The $2000.00 given isn't as my mother said, "da da". The food stamp of $149 isn't much (amount for one person) and $258 in unemployment (max amount in LA) isn't much either.

But, it's better than nothing. :confused:
What do you do? What do you say?

Oh, speaking of fraud, IMO the Red Cross is on the top of the list. They are in the rationing business. At one shelter 1 diaper is given at a time. Two or three feminine products were given at a time. What is a mother going to do with ONE diaper? What is a female going to do with ONLY 3 products? :confused: BILLIONS of dollars have been and are donated. Hey, I guess that's what you call charity. :rolleyes: Give DIRECTLY to those affected or a group you know is directly assisting those affected. That's what I've done.


ETA: 'n' in feminine

^^I can't lie --- I would've signed the form and kept going - trying to get thru today much less 8-10yrs from now. But the crudeness of our gov't is just amazing. As for the Red Cross, I've also heard that from someone that was there that some of them were rifling thru the items and taking some of the "good" stuff for themselves.

But you know what - I'll continue to give what I can & pray that it gets to those that need it.

I hear that. :(

This was forwarded to me through email...Does any one have any thoughts?
 

Did anyone volunteer? Were your perceptions the same as this writer? To those who volunteered, do you agree or disagree? What's really going on?


__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ ____

HOUSTON'S NEW RESIDENTS

Here is the real truth. I went to volunteer on Saturday, September

10, to help Hurricane Katrina evacuees in Houston for two reasons.


1. I wanted to help people.

2. I was curious.



I have been watching the news lately, like everyone else, and I have

seen some scenes that have made me physically ill. No, it was not the death and the destruction that made me ill. It was PEOPLE'S BEHAVIOR that bothered me the most.

So many of the displaced people were DEMANDING help. They were not asking nicely, but were demanding it - as if society owed them something. Well, the honest truth is society does NOT owe them anything! Help should be asked for in a kind manner and then appreciated after received, but this is definitely not what the different news organizations were witnessing and reporting.

What most of us have seen, on television and in the print media, have been individuals/groups who are yelling, demanding, looting, killing, raping, and even SHOOTING back at those who have arrived to help. MSNBC even showed one news report of several New Orleans policewomen looting a Wal-Mart! I am thinking to myself, This cannot possibly be true - or can it?!?!
Truthfully, I did not want to believe this could be true of the people who so desperately need help during this crisis. I now tell my story, and you can decide.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I arrived at the Astrodome only to find out there were too many
volunteers at that location. Volunteers were needed elsewhere especially at the George R. Brown Convention Center.
As I walked up to the Convention Center, I noticed a line of vehicles that wrapped around for blocks. These were "ordinary" Houstonians coming with water, diapers, clothes, blankets, food, every type of needed item; lots of it was NEW. As I helped to unload these vehicles, I felt such great pride that the wonderful residents of Houston would be so generous.

I then went inside the building and noticed approximately 100,000 square feet of clothing, toys, all types of needed items, that were organized and ready for the people in need. I signed in as a volunteer, received a name badge, and was on my way, eager to be useful.

I toured the place to become familiar with my surroundings. The entire Center is probably about 2 million square feet. I noticed rows, as far as the eye could see, of mattresses - not cots - but blown-up mattresses, that had nice pillows and plenty of blankets. There were also two or three bottles of water resting on each bed. These full-size to queen-size mattresses, by the way, were comfortable. I briefly rested on one of them, just to see for myself!

Next I went to look at the medical area, and I could not believe what
I was seeing. A makeshift hospital had been created in 24 hours! They even had a pharmacy.

As my tour continued, I also noticed that other volunteers had worked hard to create showers...with hot water! Then upstairs, on the third floor, I found a huge cafeteria that had also been established in 24 hours. There were rows and rows of tables and chairs and food everywhere! There was enough food to feed an army, and I am not talking about crappy food either! They had Jason's Deli food, fresh fruit, snack foods, sandwiches and lots of beverages. By the way, the beverages were put on ice and chilled!! All of this "mini-city" - including a library and a theater room - had been created in about 24 hours by volunteers, so the evacuees would have a comfortable shelter.

Here is what further happened during my time there. I started by handing bottles of COLD water to evacuees, as they exited their bus.
Many took the water, but only 20% or less even said, "Thank you."
Lots of the evacuees would shake their heads and ask for sodas! This went on for about 20-30 minutes, until I was weary of being an unappreciated servant. I then decided that certainly these folks would appreciate some food! So, I went upstairs to serve these evacuees with some GOOD food. (Food that I wished I could have had at the moment!)

Evacuees came slowly to receive this mountain of food, worthy of a king, that was being served. I explained to them that we had two types of great deli sandwiches to choose from: ham and turkey. Many looked at the food in disgust and DEMANDED burgers, pizza, and even McDonalds! (Let me tell all of you folks who may read this, that Jason's Deli is better than McDonalds any day!!) Even many of the children were demanding and rude! Only one out of ten people who took something would say, "Thank you." The remainder took items, as if it were their God-given right to be served, without a shred of appreciation. Some even asked for beer and liquor! Many complained
that we did not have "good-enough" food. Some went so far as to refuse the offers of food and laughed at and/or cursed at the
volunteers. This was not true of all of them, but at least 70% of the evacuees treated us volunteers with total disrespect. Maybe 20% were appreciative, 10% took the food without any comment, and the remainder had some disgusting comment to say.

We volunteers then began to observe that many of the people would eat their food and leave their mess on the table. Oh sure, a few would clear their tables, but the majority left their tables for the volunteers to clear and clean. Needless to say, I was in utter shock at their behavior.

From the food area, I went down to help set up some additional
mattresses. That is when I observed something else! I saw many young ladies carrying mattresses, but WHERE were the hundreds of able-bodied young men evacuees who could help?! When I asked a group of young evacuees in their teens and early twenties to help, they cursed at me!! One said, "We just lost our ****ing homes and you want us to work?!?!" The next one said, "Cracker, you got a home...we don't."

I looked at them in total disbelief. Here were women carrying THEIR beds and these young men would not lift a finger to help themselves!! I started to wonder, WHY SHOULD I HELP PEOPLE WHO DO NOT WANT TO HELP THEMSELVES?!?!?! As I turned away, they laughed at me and made obscene and distasteful comments. This is when I began realize that I did not need to waste my time on a bunch of pitiful losers in this area of the shelter.
Next, I went to a nearby rest room where I noticed a man shaving. I used the rest room, washed my hands, and then saw this same man throw his razor towards the trash can. He missed. He also walked out, leaving his dirty razor on the floor for someone else to pick up!

I could call these people ignorant ("lacking knowledge"), but they
were not ignorant. They were arrogant ("proud and overbearing through an exaggerated feeling of one's superiority")! To put it bluntly, the majority of them are thugs...and lazy!
We are inviting the lowest-of-the-low to Houston and, like idiots, we are serving the people who will most likely soon steal, rape, murder, and attempt to destroy our beloved city. We are funding our own destruction!

Please note, I am absolutely NOT referring to a specific race of people!! People who WANT to help themselves should be helped in every possible way. Those who do not want to help themselves should be left to destroy themselves, but they should not be allowed to destroy Houston at the same time.
I do not believe in being poor for life. My family immigrated here. We came here very poor and now, thank God and due to HARD WORK, we are doing well. If immigrants who come here - and do not even initially know the language - can work and become successful, why can't the majority of the other poor "homegrown" citizens do the same thing?!

I have personally just witnessed selfish, arrogant, unappreciative behavior by the very people who needed the help the most. These same people cursed me and other volunteers. They refused my city's generosity. They refused to help themselves. They pranced around as if they deserved to be waited on. When they did receive something, they said it was not good enough. As far as I am concerned, from now on, these people can fend for themselves!

Writer's Name Withheld

This person sounds like some of these ultra conservative posters that act as if they have never gone thru a devastating experience or had to ask for help. That's why when you volunteer or even take a job where you're helping people, I truly believe you have to be "called" to do that kind of work. You can't go into that kind of situation looking for a "thank-you" or any type of recognition. If you do, you'll tire and frustrate very easily. On the other end of the spectrum, Pastor Kee talked about people that were praising God for a bar of soap. The people I saw on Saturday night were grateful folks.

Sorors and GCers in the area where Rita is supposed to hit...BE SAFE! :D


:D

Soror I'm headed home as soon as the last bell rings. If I'm stuck somewhere I want to be stuck at home.

I know that's right! My sister and her family are leaving Sugar Land to come home tomorrow.

Learn.the.back.ways! :D

Girl I know the back ways better than I10.

That fool who poasted about people not being greateful is full of it! :mad: Granted, I volunteered in Gulfport, but people were greateful, appreciative - if they didn't say it with words, their faces spoke volumes!!

I m sorry those poor helpless, shiftless negros didn't bow at your feet with thanks and praises like Fiddler from Roots. :mad: :o

He did right to withhold his name

CNN has reported that Rita is now a category 5. :(

I am out, tomorrow. I just pray that all will be safe and leave!! I'm going to my grandmothers house on Oklahoma.:confused:

I's sho is happay dat yous heppin' mes owt Massa... I's tappin' dancin' fo's yous nah en mekkin' yous happay dat yous clothes us on Monday, feeds us on Tuesday en beat us on Sunday--rites afta Chutch...

Don't be mad at someone so limited in his world that actually demands angrandizement of his oh so wonderful feats that he decided to grace those poor lonely negroes with his outstretched arms in his onetime to assist ANYONE, EVER...

That just shows you how engrained hate is.

I have family in Houston and Galveston and luckly they already left before the traffic really built up. I pray that everyone's family and friend have found a safe place to stay until Rita passes. I'm suppose to return to New Orleans soon so I can go back to school (they are relocating to Baton Rouge and the cruise ship isn't there yet) and was wondering if they are still letting people in the city? I know they were expressing concern about the rain they might recieve and how it could cause problems and just wanted to know if its still a big concern.

If you live in New Orleans, you cannot reenter. You can contact the LA State Police or visit their website or nola.com for contact information.

There is ANOTHER levee breach in the 9th ward....

:eek: :(

Dayum!! Plus didn't NO get hit with a lot of rain today or last night?

Hi Honeykiss,

Just wanted to clarify that it wasn't a post from me or anyone on GC as far as I understand. It was an e-mail forwarded to me. I never imagined that someone would have that perception and I found it interesting. I was just sharing and wondering :confused: if it was just me, or is this out of the ordinary?

Kamryn

Oh Kamryn, I'm sorry if it seemed seem like I was talking about you. Now, after re-reading my post, I can see why.

Rest assured "the fool" I'm talking about is the jerk who wrote that - not you. :)

**insert embarrased smilie here**

I am back. :(

We tried to leave early yesterday morning, we were in traffic for 9-10 hours and had gone 45 miles. We tried to go east towards Louisiana ahead of the storm, but we were forced to go northeast towards the Livingston area (which is ironically now under a mandotory eveacuation) and with no way to get back to the road that takes you to Dallas or Shreveport. So we only had one chance to go towards the west which is back towards Houston. I am bitterweet to here it is moving to the east back towards the Louisiana and Texas border, I live in the extreme NE part of town so we may get some heavy wind. I just pray that all our Houston area greekchatters are okay! Most of the my neighbors are still here outside chilling. Atleast I have my wine;)

Soror, good to know that you and the family are OK. It hit me bolt upright that one of my chapter's neos moved to Houston last year and I'm also praying for her.

UPDATE: RITA HAS BEEN WEAKENED TO A CATEGORY 3
 

Rita has weakened to a Category 3 hurricane.

Let's pray that Rita will be further weakened by landfall.

In any event, our prayers and God's praises are in order.

Carry on...

...praying that all Houston-area Greekchatters will be safe. I know you guys have probably already thought of this, but perhpaps (if not already done) you can exchange numbers so peeps can check on each other??

it's gon be alright.