APISON, Tenn. (AP) - The crooks walked up to Kenneth Carter's tornado-damaged property with the purposeful air of relief workers in need of an all-terrain vehicle like the one he had parked out back.
"They said, "Excuse us, we've got to get this four-wheeler out of here,"' said the 74-year-old Apison resident. "I said, "I don't think so - that four-wheeler belongs to me!"
Carter avoided becoming a victim, but authorities say the South has been plagued by a variety of swindles since the twister outbreak last week that ripped apart houses and killed 329 people in seven states. Looters have carried off televisions, power tools and prescription pills. Elsewhere, there are unscrupulous businesses are charging double for a tank of gas or jacking up the cost of a hotel room. Authorities also warn of construction workers who leave with the cash before opening their tool kit and the danger that identities could be stolen off wind-blown documents.
Though the region has seen similar scams after hurricanes and the Gulf oil spill, the speed of flimflam men this time around has surprised authorities and survivors.
"We have received a surprising amount of calls," said Noel Barnes, consumer protection chief for the Alabama attorney general's office. "We're not going to allow people to further victimize our citizens."
Some residents are packing firearms to scare off the lowlifes.
Police in several of the states have charged people with looting, though officials said they aren't keeping statewide numbers on those arrests. Tuscaloosa's mayor on Wednesday ordered five more days of an 8 p.m. curfew to curb crime in the most heavily damaged areas, to be enforced by police and National Guard troops. The city that was hit the hardest by the outbreak is also going to start credentialing volunteers to prove they are legitimate.
Marauding thieves aren't residents' only concern. The attorney general's office in Alabama has received nearly 1,800 phone calls complaining about price gouging, Barnes said. The complaints include $2 bags of ice being sold for $5, $400 generators being sold for $1,600 on the side of the road, hotels jacking up their prices and unfair gasoline prices. Just across the border in Tennessee, authorities were investigating a complaint that a service station was charging $40 for $20 worth of gasoline.
Both states have laws against price-gouging. In Alabama, businesses are prohibited after disasters from increasing the price of items for sale or rent by 25 percent or more above the average price charged in the same area within the last 30 days.
Dozens of Tennessee gasoline stations were charged with price gouging following Hurricanes Ike and Gustav in 2008. Settlements totaled more than $175,000.