The Arizona Republic investigated federal aid grants from the Department of Homeland Security and found that hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent by local government officials on "equipment they are not certified to use or to pay for projects with only a tenuous link to homeland security." More:

an Arizona Republic review of thousand of pages of records and receipts found that some local governments made many questionable purchases under the guise of homeland security, including $38 leather wallets for all Capitol Police officers and a $47 hat badge for the police chief.

Many small cities and towns that are unlikely targets for a terrorist attack received disproportionate amounts of money, often more per capita than Phoenix, Tucson or Mesa....

State officials responsible for administering the federal funds said personnel shortages led to lax oversight and poor tracking in the initial years. But they also said they followed federal guidelines and approved purchase lists and have made improvements since 2003.

Who can honestly say they're surprised by this? It's true we're only talking about a few hundred thousand dollars, which is a rounding error in the grand scheme of things, but it does highlight a basic fact: when the government doles out money, people are going to spend it. And they're going to spend all of it whether they "need" to or not.