Federal Emergency Management Agency employee Frank Charles Tanner, 47, of Independence, La., was arrested Friday and charged with looting after the homeowner, who was there to watch a FEMA trailer being delivered, caught him.

The homeowner, Darin LeBlanc, said he’d gotten a phone call saying the trailer had finally been delivered to his Slidell home, and went over to look. When he arrived, he was shocked to find one of the FEMA employees walking out of his house carrying a plastic bin full of his own possessions.

Tanner was so brazen about it that he was doing the looting right in front of the homeowner, and his excuse was that he mistook the homeowner for a plumber.

“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!’ ”

“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. — New Orleans Times-Picayune

In an ironic twist, FEMA released an advisory Tuesday warning people to be aware of fraud, and only to give personal information to real FEMA employees.