Prosecutor: Couple, homeless vet bilked public with made-up story on act of kindness

[PoliticAverse]

MOUNT HOLLY, N.J. – It was a feel-good story that was too good to be true, authorities say.

Prosecutors on Thursday announced criminal charges against a New Jersey couple and a homeless veteran at the center of a legal dispute over hundreds of thousands of dollars in online donations.

The Burlington County (New Jersey) Prosecutor's Office has charged Katelyn McClure and Mark D'Amico, both of Florence, New Jersey, with theft by deception and conspiracy to commit theft in connection with the viral story of a homeless Samaritan's supposed act of kindness.

The man described by the couple as a good Samaritan, homeless veteran Johnny Bobbitt Jr., was charged with the same crimes, officials said.

Read the rest at: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/11/15/johnny-bobbitt-gofundme-homeless-samaritan-mark-damico-katelyn-mcclure/2011522002/

[superpatriotman]

1. Grifter's gonna grift

[tparrett62]

2. I actually kinda like this ending

The whole thing seemed a little hinky from the get-go, but it's really kind of an entertaining con story. It would have worked, too, if they didn't get greedy and turn on each other. I know stuff like this makes people think twice about donating to other GoFundMe type things, but maybe that's not the worst thing either. I hope no one donated more than they could afford, but otherwise, I'm more amused than anything else.

[PoliticAverse]

3. Would make a good movie. Maybe they could get J-Law to star. n/t

[TexasBushwhacker]

5. I'm always suspicious of fundraising that's open ended

I think the initial goal was $50K, but they allowed the account to stay open and the balance went up to $400K. Of course, GoFundMe isn't going to shut it down because they still get their cut.

I hope they all do prison time. The couple because they took advantage of people's trust and generosity. The homeless guy because he has a big drug problem. Maybe he can get clean in prison.

[tavernier]

4. We had a guy in the Keys that posed as a vet.

He was missing half of his face, and one hand. Said it happened in Iraq. Turned out that he was a home invader and had his face blown off by a man who lived in the house that he tried to rob. But before the community knew that, they had given him a boat, A job, clothes, food, etc. He would’ve been all right for a while had he not gotten drunk one night and found a gun and challenged another guy in the streets. Some people are just nuts

[GemDigger]

6. What did Bobbitt get a lawyer for?

This probably would have been a pretty good "pull the wool over peoples eyes" scam.

Now that I said that.... this really, really, really pisses me off. One really for each of them.

[PoliticAverse]

7. In schemes like these it seems someone often gets greedy...

leading to a fallout among the conspirators and exposure/prosecution.

[GemDigger]

8. How dumb can you get?? It's like a bank robber wearing a sandwich board saying

"I just robbed the bank"

[LisaL]

10. More likely like bank robber who stole the money with two buddies,

got away with it, but then went to the police to complain his buddies ripped him off and gotten more than their share of the stolen money.

[LisaL]

9. Exactly. Prosecutor says they would have all likely gotten away with

it if he didn't decide to sue the other two.

[LisaL]

11. It was. I don't know what their arrangement was, but it was three of them.

After gofundme fee, they got about $360,000 so each should have gotten around $120,000. He supposedly received $75,000 which is less than his presumed share. But it's still more than 0.
But then he decided to sue them for all the money as if it wasn't a hoax to begin with.

[GemDigger]

12. I imagine this will end with the three of them behind bars for a few years.

[LisaL]

13. At lest he will have a roof over his head then.