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From looting to charity scams, disaster brings out the worst in some people

From looting to charity scams, disaster brings out the worst in some people

Disasters may bring out the best in many people but it also seems to bring out the worst in others. Along with helping hands, there are hands that want to help themselves.

While crews in B.C.'s Slocan Valley work to clean up a jet-fuel spill from a tanker truck that fell into a creek last week, someone appears to be going around local homes pretending to offer air and water quality assessments, The Canadian Press reports.

Executive Flight Centre, the company responsible for the cleanup, is warning residents in the southeastern B.C. area to beware of people offering to do inspections on properties near the Lemon Creek spill site.

The company said the local health authority is not doing door-to-door checks but only responding to individual requests, CP reported.

Meanwhile, the RCMP are also dealing with two acts of vandalism that targeted a clean-water holding tank set up in the wake of the spill, CP said. One of several tanks used to to dispense water while nearby water sources remain off limits was knocked over twice.

[ Related: Angry B.C. residents pack meeting after fuel spill ]

Scams are as ubiquitous around disasters as blankets and canned food. Chaos and desperation seem to make people more vulnerable to being ripped off.

The U.S. Better Business Bureau posted a warning last May after strong storms and tornadoes tore a swath through northern Texas. Besides the usual come-ons from dubious clean-up contractors, people should be wary of emails or text messages ostensibly linked to disaster-relief fundraising drives, as well as door-to-door appeals.

Canadians were hit with a spate of charity scams in the wake of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, CBC News reported.

Scammers and thieves quickly crawled out of the woodwork after southern Alberta was inundated by flood waters in June.

Edmonton police issued warnings about a woman who set up a booth at a local mall and sold boxes of Krispy Kreme doughnuts, ostensibly to raise funds for flood victims, CP reported

The woman accepted only credit or debit cards, which allowed her to steal banking information and rack up thousands of dollars in bogus charges, said Sgt. Mike Walkom.

One victim told the Edmonton Sun he knew something wasn't right when the box of doughnuts he'd purchased turned out to be stale. The next day, the man got a call from his credit-card company to say his card had been compromised and his account was being used to withdraw cash in Washington state.

"I was shocked. Straight away I thought the only sketchy place I used it was this Krispy Kreme doughnut booth," said the man, who identified himself only as John.

"Part of me was telling myself, it couldn't be. There is nobody out there that would use a charity fundraiser to scam people."

Police later arrested a woman, said to be from Vernon, B.C., and charged her with four counts of fraud and possessing the instruments for forgery, the Sun said.

[ Related: Albertans in post-flood cleanup phase face new hazards ]

Some disaster crooks are more direct. RCMP said High River, which was hit very hard by the flooding, was then hit by a rash of thefts after the town of 6,000 was evacuated, according to CP.

The looting has included theft of copper wire and pipe from evacuated homes and bakery equipment left outside to dry when the water receded.

“One minute it’s there and one minute it’s gone,” said Katie Vogt of the $150,000 worth of mixers, racks and ovens she lost. “They had a Bobcat, a front-end loader, a big garbage trailer — they just came in and hauled it all away.”

In Calgary, a woman whose upper-floor condo unit was spared from flood waters, nonetheless returned home to find looters had ransacked her apartment, the Calgary Sun reported in late June.

There were cigarette burns on the sofa, discarded liquor bottles strewn on the floor, puddles of urine and drawers dumped out in an apparent search for valuables.

“I just couldn’t believe it, everything was overturned and it reeked of urine,” said the homeowner, who called herself Sophie.

A neighbour on the floor above also had her place looted, the Sun reported.

Calgary Police Chief Rick Hanson said at the time his department had 17 reported break-in/looting incidents in almost two dozen Calgary communities where 100,000 residents were ordered to evacuate. Hanson said officers will investigate rigorously but added it's not surprising criminals would take advantage of the crisis.

Sophie, meanwhile, is angry, especially after hearing Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi say looting was a rumour.

“I really want people to know this is going on and I want the mayor to acknowledge not everybody in this city is great," she said.