{"id":219,"date":"2018-11-16T06:13:11","date_gmt":"2018-11-16T06:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/howtowinthelotterysecrets.com\/index.php\/2018\/11\/16\/a-homeless-veterans-heartwarming-story-led-to-a-400000-gofundme-prosecutors-say-it-was-a-lie\/"},"modified":"2018-11-16T06:13:11","modified_gmt":"2018-11-16T06:13:11","slug":"a-homeless-veterans-heartwarming-story-led-to-a-400000-gofundme-prosecutors-say-it-was-a-lie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/howtowinthelotterysecrets.com\/index.php\/2018\/11\/16\/a-homeless-veterans-heartwarming-story-led-to-a-400000-gofundme-prosecutors-say-it-was-a-lie\/","title":{"rendered":"A homeless veteran\u2019s heartwarming story led to a $400,000 GoFundMe. Prosecutors say it was a lie."},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

Eli Rosenberg<\/a> <\/p>\n

General assignment reporter covering national and breaking news<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

November 15 at 6:19 PM<\/span>\n<\/div>\n

A couple\u2019s feel-good story, about a homeless veteran who had helped a woman after she ran out of gas on a highway exit ramp, reverberated widely, drawing high-profile media appearances and more than $400,000 in donations the couple said would go to help the veteran.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the last vestiges of the story appeared to come tumbling down after law enforcement officials in New Jersey announced theft charges against all three individuals: the couple, Kate McClure and Mark D\u2019Amico, as well as Johnny Bobbitt, the homeless man they said they were going to support with the money that had flowed in.<\/p>\n

Officials said the trio\u2019s story, which was published on GoFundMe with the title \u201cPaying it Forward,\u201d in November 2017<\/a>, was all a ruse, a conspiracy on the part of all three to commit theft.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe entire campaign was predicated on a lie,\u201d Scott A. Coffina, the prosecutor of Burlington County in New Jersey, said at a news conference on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Coffina said no assistance was ever given at or near a gas station, citing some of the more than 60,000 text messages he said investigators had pored over in the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cOk so wait the gas part is completely made up, but the guy isn\u2019t,\u201d McClure texted a friend less than an hour after the GoFundMe page went live, Coffina said. \u201cI had to make something up to make people feel bad. So shush about the made up stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe did not run out of gas on an I-95 off-ramp, and he did not spend his last $20 to help her,\u201d the prosecutor said.<\/p>\n

McClure and D\u2019Amico, who surrendered Wednesday in New Jersey, and Bobbitt, who is awaiting extradition in Pennsylvania, face sentences of five to 10 years in jail if convicted, Coffina said.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>
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Johnny Bobbitt, left, Kate McClure and Mark D’Amico at a Citgo station in Philadelphia on Nov. 17, 2017. (Elizabeth Robertson\/Philadelphia Inquirer\/AP)<\/span>\n<\/div>\n

The charges are the latest turn in a saga that has unfolded over more than a year, capturing media headlines as the heartwarming story took off at lightning speed and then began to crumble after Bobbitt filed a lawsuit against the couple.<\/p>\n

At first, the tale of a seemingly selfless gesture made by the homeless veteran \u2014 and the couple\u2019s efforts to pay him back \u2014 enthralled people reading about it online, drawing donations from more than 14,000 people and media coverage from local outlets and organizations such as CNN<\/a>, The Washington Post<\/a> and BBC News.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got her gas to help her get on her way; I wasn\u2019t expecting anything in return,\u201d Bobbitt told ABC\u2019s \u201cGood Morning America.\u201d<\/p>\n

About $402,000 had poured into the campaign, an amount Bobbitt told the show felt like \u201cwinning the lottery.\u201d<\/p>\n

But last summer, he began to complain publicly about not receiving enough of the money that had supposedly been donated for his rehabilitation. At the end of August, Bobbitt filed a lawsuit against the couple that accused them of fraud and conspiracy, of using the<\/a> \u201cGoFundMe account as their personal piggy bank to fund a lifestyle that they could not otherwise afford.”<\/p>\n

Investigators searched the couple\u2019s home and hauled away a BMW car they had recently purchased. In a high-profile interview with NBC\u2019s Megyn Kelly, McClure and D\u2019Amico insisted $150,000 of the money they raised remained for Bobbitt. D\u2019Amico said at other points he was holding on to some of the money but would gladly turn it over to Bobbitt once he kicked an opioid addiction and managed to hold down a job.<\/p>\n

[Police search home of couple accused of squandering $400,000 raised for a homeless veteran<\/a>]<\/i><\/p>\n

By the time Bobbitt filed the lawsuit, the money was gone, according to Coffina.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy the middle of March, D\u2019Amico and McClure squandered the vast amount of money,\u201d Coffina said. \u201cAmong other things, they bought a car, took trips, purchased high-end handbags and hit the casinos \u2014 hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

The final twist in the story came this week with the news that prosecutors had also charged Bobbitt. Coffina spoke with a sense of sympathy for Bobbitt, noting his service in the Marine Corps, but said he had no other choice.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe deserves our appreciation for his willingness to serve our country as a U.S. Marine. And he has our sympathy and concern for the homelessness he\u2019s experienced,\u201d Coffina said. \u201cBut it is imperative to keep in mind that he was fully complicit with this scheme to defraud contributors, promoting the campaign in multiple media appearances and posing with D\u2019Amico and McClure for a Philly Inquirer story in front of a gas station that he did not buy gas from.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coffina said Bobbitt had posted a similar story about helping a woman with dinner money while he was living in North Carolina in 2012 on Facebook and said blame for the plan lay with all three suspects.<\/p>\n

He said GoFundMe told his office it would refund the money contributed by everyone who had donated.<\/p>\n

Read more: <\/b><\/p>\n

A man shouted \u2018Heil Hitler’ and \u2018Heil Trump\u2019 during \u2018Fiddler on the Roof\u2019 \u2014 and people ran<\/a><\/p>\n

They evacuated to escape the deadly Camp Fire. Then norovirus invaded their shelter.<\/a><\/p>\n

Veterans aren\u2019t getting their GI Bill payments \u2014 because VA\u2019s 50-year-old computer system broke<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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