Red-white-and-blue Fagin

A Clermont County grand jury has indicted 52-year-old Clinton Fuston of Union Township on charges that for at least six years he operated as a local, modern day Fagin by setting up bogus donation buckets outside grocery stores to collect spare change for veterans. The take from his alleged scam: at least $60,000 -- and according to police, not a cent went to veterans.

In this season of spontaneous giving, news of such scam artists goes down like poison. Fuston is accused of using the donations for his personal spending and for such treats as a trip to Disney World with his children and a couple of Boy Scouts from a troop he led. If he's guilty, any suggestions on where his next trip should take him?

Supposedly he talked more than 60 businesses into letting him or his hirelings solicit donations outside their stores. Rule No. 1: Know your charities and know their solicitors. Fuston and his minions allegedly handed out little flags to those who donated. Ah yes, the old wrap-yourself-in- the-flag routine. There are plenty of deserving veterans charities that the scammed $60,000 should have gone to.

It's getting so almost every other cash register has some charity collection box beside it, and you can't go out in your yard anymore without being accosted for a donation. I kind of go on spider-sense whether to give or decline. But I get warier by the year about spur-of-the-moment giving. Do you find it as disheartening as I did to hear it took six year for anyone to get around to checking the guy's books?