MURFREESBORO, Tenn. -- Not even a week after deadly tornadoes hit central Tennessee, someone began taking advantage of people who are opening their hearts and pocketbooks to storm victims, authorities said.
On a Web site called wishuponahero , victims of the storms post their needs while others volunteer to grant their wishes, WSMV-TV in Nashville reported.
A recent headline on the site stated: "Tennessee Tornados Took Everything, Including My Mother..."
A woman named "Trish" from Tennessee created the headline and wrote on the site, "I lost my mother last night in the tornado ... My brother and his wife are in serious condition at Sumner Medical Center ... I am seeking donations of anything, used, new, anything. I sit here crying thinking of my mom and how much I love her and miss her already."
Trish's appeal won the sympathy and hearts of people around the country. One person asked for her children's clothes sizes, wondered if they needed new toys, while others sent prayers and condolences about her mother.
But it turned out that none of Trish's claims were true.
The television station tracked down "Trish," whose full name is Patricia Reid. She lives in Murfreesboro, miles from where the tornadoes actually hit.
"I would appreciate no more phone calls. My mother is fine and everything like that," Reid said.
"That was a lie, then?" a WSMV reporter asked her.
"Yes, it was, ma'am, OK?" said Reid.
"Why would you do that?" asked the reporter.
"Because I was trying to get help for some people who were, who lost some stuff, OK?" said Reid.
Reid has a felony theft conviction in Rutherford County, the television station reported.
Reid said she only got $3 from the Web page, but it appears that she has posted other appeals before.
In July 2006, she said she had cancer and $600,000 in medical bills.
"How would we know what to believe and what not to believe, if you lied about your mother being dead?" the reporter asked.
"You don't have to believe anything," Reid responded.
The man who runs the Web site said whenever there are heroes, there also are villains, and he warned people who are inclined to grant wishes to do their own truth testing.
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