The Knuckleheads of the Day award

Today's winners are Mary Gilbert, Jeff West, Mark P. Brumley, Peggy Diane Burge and Little Joe West. As the Tallahassee Democrat reports these five Hurricane Katrina evacuees were charged Friday in Leon County Florida with fraud for scamming an additional $10,000 from the American Red Cross.

These people deserve sympathy for the havoc Katrina caused in their lives. Do not deserve sympathy for cheating other evaucees potentially of the help of the Red Cross. Shame on all five of them, they are despicable Knuckleheads of the Day.

Open Post- Mudville Gazette

An investigation is ongoing and more arrests are expected, said Sgt. Steve Harrelson of the Leon County Sheriff's Office Criminal Investigations Bureau.

The five arrested so far, all related by blood or marriage, either stole or forged Red Cross voucher forms, known as disbursing orders, for money from the organization's hurricane disaster relief fund over the last week, reports show.

For instance, one voucher was made out for "$305" and "three hundred five dollars." That form had been changed to "$1,305" and "thirteen hundred five dollars," with word "thirteen" in cramped-looking writing.

In several states, authorities have arrested people accused of falsely claiming to be Hurricane Katrina victims to get money. But those charged here appear to be legitimate evacuees.

They used the money to buy clothes, beer, cigarettes and a used Pontiac Montana minivan while in Tallahassee, Harrelson said.

Officials of the Capital Area Chapter of the Red Cross have determined that five blank vouchers had been stolen - four of which have been recovered - and another five were given out, then altered.

All of those arrested had signed up for help at the local relief center, said Chris Floyd, the chapter's director of emergency services. He suspects the blanks were swiped out of a pile on a case worker's desk when her back was turned.

"It's unfortunate that disasters bring out both the best and worst in humanity," Floyd said.

Harrelson said the vouchers were cashed over the last week at the Envision Credit Union and the Credit Union Service Center, both on Thomasville Road. Executives there could not be reached for comment Friday evening.

The suspects had been staying nearby, at the Hilton Garden Inn, also on Thomasville Road, and the Studio Plus on Raymond Diehl Road.

Discrepancies were caught by Red Cross auditors in the last couple of days, when they noticed that amounts on voucher copies kept in the office didn't match ones coming back from the credit unions, Floyd said.

They alerted sheriff's detectives, who were able to nab the suspects after watching the credit unions' surveillance videotapes, according to Harrelson.

The Red Cross' disaster relief fund consists of donated money; none of that comes from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The evacuees, who were charged with organized scheme to defraud, grand theft, forgery and passing forged checks,