A homeless ex-Marine named Johnny Bobbitt Jr. and a young New Jersey woman named Kate McClure gained notoriety for a story in the national media last year when when Bobbitt supposedly gave McClure his last $20 so she could buy gas when her car broke down on a highway in Philadelphia.
In turn, she then started raising money for him to help improve his life.
“I wish that I could do more for this selfless man, who went out of his way just to help me that day,” she originally wrote on the fundraising page.
“Truly believe that all Johnny needs is one little break. Hopefully with your help I can be the one to give it to him.”
People responded — in spades. And they were scammed.
It urns out it was all one big lie.
Bobbitt initiated legal action against McClure in August for not paying out the GoFundMe to him — which raised nearly $400,000.
GoFundMe scam leads to charges against Johnny Bobbitt, Kate McClure, Mark D’Amico, but still isnt as bad as the story the Democrats made against Brett Kavanaugh and the Go Fund Me set up for fake victim Dr. Ford https://t.co/SxIgEn1QVF
— Nate Woodard (@storm_chaser82) November 15, 2018
And now the courts are charging them both, as well as Mark D’Amico, McClure’s boyfriend — with second-degree theft by deception and conspiracy to commit theft by deception — because the event never happened.
If they’re found guilty, each could serve five to 10 years in prison.
Bobbitt was indeed homeless — that part is true. He also did spend some time in the Marines. He served as an ammunition technician when he was in the Corps but never completed his first enlistment; he was discharged from the service as an E-1 in 2004, according to the Marine Corps Times. But the three people in this story first met at a casino back in October 2017 — a month before they said they met.
McClure even admitted in text messages that their initial story, which went viral last fall, was completely false.
She texted a friend, “The gas part is completely made up, but the guy isn’t. I had to make something up to make people feel bad.”
In a segment on “The Ingraham Angle” on Friday night on Fox News, contributor Raymond Arroyo weighed in on the scam.
“They’re pulling the heartstrings here with a homeless veteran,” he said of the GoFundMe campaign. “He’s going out of his way to help a woman.”
Due to fraud exactly like this, host Laura Ingraham said people must be careful when deciding on the charitable causes they’ll support.
“That’s why it’s better to give money to organizations with the best ratings,” she said. “I think this whole thing has to be examined.”
Related: Dog Faked Homelessness to Scarf Up Free Food
Although people believed the story at first, it unraveled when Bobbitt was not happy with the cut he received from the GoFundMe money.
He’d only received about $75,000 of the funds, while McClure and D’Amico kept the rest; Bobbitt then hired attorneys to try to get more of the cash.
In September, GoFundMe said it would be paying Bobbitt the rest of the money that was raised for him.
The two young people alleged they did not give Bobbitt all of the money because if they did, he’d spend it on drugs. In September, GoFundMe said it would be paying Bobbitt the rest of the money that was raised for him.
So far, Bobbitt has received at least $200,000 from the crowdfunding effort, as the Philadelphia Enquirer and other outlets have reported. In an appearance on NBC’s “Megyn Kelly Today” last week, McClure and D’Amico claim there is only about $150,000 remaining from the account — and that Bobbitt had spent money on vices like drugs.
Bobbitt, meanwhile, has accused the couple of spending the money intended for him on such lavish expenditures as a BMW and on vacations to locations like California, Florida, Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon, among others.
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Tom Joyce is a freelance writer from the South Shore of Massachusetts. He covers sports, pop culture, and politics and has contributed to The Federalist, Newsday and others.
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