US: Homeless man given $400k through GoFundMe is back on street / It was all a scam

[Jabberwocky]

The homeless man who gave his last $20 to help a stranded Philadelphia motorist says he has been locked out of hundreds of thousands of dollars raised for him through a viral GoFundMe campaign.

And now he?s back living under a bridge, addicted and panhandling for change.

GoFundMe is investigating the hero hobo?s claim that the woman he helped and her live-in boyfriend may have set up the online fundraiser only to steal the donations.

Some $400,000 was raised on GoFundMe for Johnny Bobbitt, 35, after he helped Kate McClure when she ran out of gas in a dicey Philly neighborhood this past November.

More than 14,000 people made donations after the story was featured on ABC?s ?Good Morning America,? the BBC and other media.

?He will never have to worry about a roof over his head again!!? the couple had promised on GoFundMe.

But now the good deed heard round the world has devolved into a bitter public battle.

McClure, 28, and boyfriend Mark D?Amico, 39, both of Florence Township, NJ, insist they?ve spent half the fundraiser money on housing and other expenses for Bobbitt. They say they are holding the rest until he?s off drugs.

Bobbit once blew through $25,000 cash in under two weeks, they claimed to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

?Giving him all that money, it?s never going to happen. I?ll burn it in front of him,? D?Amico told the newspaper.

With Bobbitt?s opioid addiction, handing him another chunk of money would be like ?giving him a loaded gun,? he said.

But Bobbitt wonders why the couple has been posting to Facebook and Instagram photos of pricey-looking vacations to California, Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon.

McClure, who is also the owner of a new BMW, is a receptionist for the New Jersey Department of Transportation. D?Amico is a carpenter.

?I think it might have been good intentions in the beginning, but with that amount of money, I think it became greed,? Bobbitt told the Inquirer.

The North Carolina native spoke as he sat under a bridge with his homeless brother, Josh, 34, and a sign reading, ?Homeless Hungry Anything Helps Thank You! God Bless!?

Johnny Bobbit said they had been living there since June, when he was kicked out of a camper the couple bought him and set up in their yard.

McClure declined to speak to The Post on Friday.

But a next-door neighbor remembered Bobbitt as an aggressive presence who constantly demanded money.

?I just gave you money!? he recalled hearing D?Amico shout.

A GoFundMe representative said in a statement that the company was investigating both sides? allegations.


Source: https://nypost.com/2018/08/23/gofun...medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark

 

[S.J.B.]

The likely outright fraud aside (and it sounds like this is what is most likely happening), it's completely wrong to raise money ostensibly to be given to a homeless person and then hold on to the money because the homeless person, like most homeless people, has an active issue with addiction.

 

[freesolo123]

I think people forget that for some people being homeless is a choice, if you gave them a house and they had to sit in it alone they would go mad they are so used to being on the street surrounded by the noises, the smell and always someone to talk too

 

[Jabberwocky]

Somehow I doubt they asked what the actual recipient of the funds would have wanted, let alone explored his options with him beyond “get off drugs.”

 

[ro4eva]

As a someone who knows first-hand what can happen to your life savings, credit rating and quality of life (among other things) when you become severely-addicted to a potent ?-opioid agonist such as morphine, hydromorphone and diacetylmorphine, I can definitely understand - and sincerely appreciate - attempts by others to prevent you from making a decision which you'll likely regret.

At the same time, I believe that I can also understand how greed can slowly-but-surely corrupt those whose intentions were initially noble by way of chipping away at an individual's constitution. Sadly, it happens all the time throughout the world. A capitalist nation with lax regulations and a dwindling social safety net is certainly no exception. In the end, such individuals tend to lose touch with their convictions, and some end up becoming the very thing they claim to abhor.

All that aside, whatever the smallprint / agreement states is relevant, whereas my opinions are not. But that's okay - my pearls of wisdom; my arbiters of elegance shall survive. Indubitably!

 

[Captain.Heroin]

This is why you don’t give homeless people money.

 

[Jabberwocky]

This is why you don’t give homeless people money.

This is why it's best to blow the drug or booze money on yourself haha

On another note, I remember once seeing an older homeless person begging for money. About 20 minutes later he was in gambling section of the pub playing the slots where me and my uncle were doing $2 hits and he had just put in a crisp new $50 that someone had probably just given him. Sad to see but I know what that addiction feels like, it is something else.

 

[S.J.B.]

This is why you don’t give homeless people money.

It's fine to give homeless people money as long as you don't have any pretensions about what the money is going to be used for. On the other hand, giving a homeless person money through an unknown intermediary on a crowdfunding website is an awful idea.

 

[cj]

The couple should go to jail. It's his money not there's. The addiction bullshit is just a smokescreen to screw him over

 

[S.J.B.]

Homeless veteran and New Jersey couple arrested in GoFundMe scam
CBS News
Kate Smith
November 15th, 2018

A New Jersey couple and homeless veteran who captured international attention and praise for their heartwarming "good Samaritan" tale have been arrested for fraud, an unexpected twist in a yearlong story of good deeds gone wrong. The Burlington County prosecutor's office announced the charges Thursday.

The woman, Katelyn McClure, and her boyfriend, Mark D'Amico, started a GoFundMe campaign for Johnny Bobbitt last year after sharing a story of how he supposedly offered his last $20 to help McClure when her car ran out of gas.

The "Paying it Forward" fundraiser was immensely popular, collecting over $400,000 from over 14,000 donors around the world. But the feel-good story quickly started to unravel into a dispute over money. And now prosecutors say it was all a scam from the beginning.

"It might seem too good to be true and unfortunately it was," prosecutor Scott Coffina said at a press conference Thursday afternoon. "The entire campaign was predicated on a lie."

According to Coffina, McClure texted a friend less than an hour after the GoFundMe campaign launched, saying the story was "completely made up." McClure did not run out of gas on an I-95 ramp and Bobbitt did not offer his last $20 to help her. In the text exchange, McClure told her friends to "shh about the made up stuff," Coffina said.

Read the full story here.

 

[cj]

Too funny. If they all hadn't been idiots they would of pulled it off

 

[Prescottdave]

There are plenty of ways to donate money to help people struggling with lack of food or shelter that do not involve go fund me campaigns.

With a bit of research you could find a more secure and sustainable organization to donate to.

This is not the first nor the last time we see people misusing donations from similar online set ups.

 

[Burnt Offerings]

Lol god what a bunch of assholes