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!!!!!
