I've always thought there were few charities more admirable or more well-intentioned than the Make-A-Wish Foundation. I know in my head that, in the long run, groups that fund research to cure cancer or heart disease will probably have a greater impact over the long run, but what charity can compare to the immediate gratification of seeing a dying child treated like a princess at Disney World?
So what scumbag, you might wonder, would defraud the Make-A-Wish foundation, and disappoint a very sick boy? Douglas Reisberg, 53, of Arizona, was arrested last week after failing to build a go-cart for a 16-year-old boy on kidney dialysis. Reisberg had been given $11,000 by the Illinois chapter of Make-A-Wish last March and has neither delivered the go-cart nor returned the money, despite repeated discussions with the Foundation and with the boy. This con went so far at one point as to tell the boy he was flying in with the go-cart, so the boy was disconnected from his dialysis machine and taken to the airport - where no go-cart ever arrived.
Reisberg has admitted that he lost thousands of dollars in a bad business deal, and used the Make-A-Wish money to cover some of that loss. But couldn't he have ripped off an animal shelter or something???
Just kidding! Of course it's never okay to steal from any charity. We all know the only businesses worthy of being cheated are the big insurance companies.
