FEMA worker charged with looting

nola.com
Jan. 11, 2006

Having waited more than three months for two FEMA trailers to arrive for his extended family, Darin LeBlanc was elated when he heard the first one had been delivered to the driveway outside his ruined Slidell home.

"I couldn't believe that after all those phone calls it was finally here," said LeBlanc, who has been living in the office at his Kenner glass shop. "I had to stop by to see it for myself."

But LeBlanc could scarcely believe his eyes Friday afternoon when he arrived at his home in the Bayou Bonfouca Estates subdivision.

He had just started talking with the Federal Emergency Management Agency subcontractors installing the trailer when he spotted one of the workers walking out of his gutted house carrying a plastic bin filled with several items, including a black case containing his daughter's flute.

"I told him, 'Hey, that's my personal property!' " LeBlanc said. "He just stood there dumbfounded and asked me what I wanted him to do with it, and I said, 'Put it back in my f - - - - - - house!' "

As the worker carried the bin inside, LeBlanc called the police, who arrested the man. Frank Charles Tanner, 47, of Independence, was booked with looting.

"It's unbelievable that the people who are supposed to be trying to help you are stealing from you," said LeBlanc, whose wife and two children are living in Dallas. "All I'm trying to do is get a place for my family to be together. It's just one thing after another."

Tanner is accused of trying to steal a tool kit, an electric heater, a pair of stereo speakers, a surge protector and the flute, which has been in the family for three generations.

The items are valued at $550, which makes the looting charge a felony, said Slidell police Capt. Rob Callahan.

The trailer is for LeBlanc's father, whose Metairie condominium was swamped by 5 feet of water during Hurricane Katrina.

LeBlanc said his brother and grandmother also will live in his father's trailer. He said FEMA has been unable to tell him when the second trailer will arrive for his immediate family.

"I thought about not calling the police because I was worried it would mess things up even more, but I knew I had to do it," he said. "Who knows? Maybe this will help push things along."

LeBlanc said Tanner mistook him for the plumbing inspector because LeBlanc had pointed out the plumbing outtake line to the workers.

"He was stunned when I told him I was the homeowner and not the inspector," he said. "He tried to apologize and say he wasn't that kind of person, but it was so obvious. I mean, I caught the guy red-handed."

Tanner was hired by the FEMA subcontractor Wednesday and had helped install one other trailer in Slidell, Police Chief Freddy Drennan said. He said detectives are investigating whether any property is missing from that home.

"It's truly sad when someone enters your storm-ravaged home to steal the few personal items you have left," the chief said.