Everyone could use a little media training, even if they never stand before a camera. You’ll never know when an appearance before the wrong lens will end your career. Even if your “career” is fraud.

Wesley Warren of Walker County, Alabama, has pleaded guilty to two counts of FEMA/Hurricane fraud. Each count carries a five-year/$250,000 maximum penalty. Warren passed himself off as a New Orleans evacuee, when in fact he’s really from Jasper.

That’s Jasper, as in Walker County. The same county where he filed his claims.

So, exactly how did this criminal mastermind trip himself up?

The Walker County native gained local notoriety after being featured in a Daily Mountain Eagle article under the alias Wesley Wood. An article published on Sept. 11, in the Eagle’s Lifestyles section featured several accounts of individuals who had fled their homes to escape the destruction of the massive hurricane. Among them, Warren, posing as Wood, related a dramatic story that, according to prosecutors, never happened. Warren’s picture also ran with the story.

Emphasis mine. He allowed his picture to be taken by his hometown paper.

Kidding aside, fraud has been a simmering issue in the relief community. The Red Cross and other groups were faced with a choice: fraud-proof the system, or get the help out the door. They opted for the latter. The difficulty comes when the “bad news big fraud” stories get front page play, and all of the individual convictions and prosecutions get leaked out over time. It’s hard to get reporters and editors interested in a trickle of good evidence, even if it outweighs the bad.

That’s life. Deal with it.