From stranger to crook: makes a viral emotional story, raises $ 400,000 and everything is a lie – 03/09/2019

The story goes back to 2017, in Philadelphia (United States). A young woman, identified as Kate McClure, runs out of gas on a highway and receives help from Johnny Bobbitt Jr., a homeless man who gives her last $ 20 to help her get home. Moved by the gesture, McClure makes the viral event and launches a campaign on the "GoFundMe" page to help the "homeless". In just nine months, he manages raise about $ 400,000. Now, we knew that everything was about a big lie enjoy the solidarity of thousands of people.

On Friday, Bobbitt Jr. – a former 36-year-old US Army officer – appeared in a New Jersey state court and pleaded guilty of being part of a plan as well as McClure and his partner then flew through the money deception of about 14,000 donors.

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In addition to accepting responsibility for this crime, the man agreed to testify against other participants of the scam, who should be sentenced to five years in prison is liable for a rehabilitation program for drug addicts.

According to prosecutors, Bobbitt, McClure and his boyfriend, Mark D Amico, created a false story in which they described the homeless as a good Samaritan able to raise money on the Internet and divide it. However, once the campaign became viral and appeared on television, The couple started to spend money.

According to local media reports, the couple spent some of their money on vacation, gambling, luxury shopping and the Bobbit mobile home, which has been living on family land for a while.

Bobbitt Jr. he only received about $ 25,000, who mainly spent drugs. Although the plan was to divide the product, the indigent sued the couple for keeping much of the money.

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In a newspaper interview, Kate McClure said that she and Amico had done everything possible to help Bobbitt. The couple told the newspaper that he had given the man more than half the money, but he kept the rest until he found a job and no longer used drugs.

Last Wednesday, Bobbitt and McClure, who is now 28, they pled guilty federal crimes for planning, respectively, money laundering and electronic fraud. He incurs up to 30 months in prison and she is 33 years old.

McClure and 39-year-old Amico are also accused at state level of having plotted a robbery with deception, such as Bobbitt.