Even criminals need to pay attention in English class.

A former Los Angeles Times employee surrendered to Los Angeles police Monday in connection with the theft of $64,236 from the newspaper's Sept. 11 Disaster Relief Fund.

Michael Childress, 35, a temporary employee hired to process mail and donations to the fund, is scheduled for arraignment today on two counts of theft and three counts of grand theft.

Prosecutors said the thefts were uncovered after several donors complained about grammatical and spelling errors in the thank-you notes they received from The Times. "If this guy had used spell check, he might have gotten away with it," said Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney's office.

Every English teacher should post this in their class.