Campaign to Help Philly Homeless Man Gets Nasty

Johnny Bobbit Jr says he didn't get everything he was promised
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 25, 2018 1:00 PM CDT
Campaign to Help Philly Homeless Man Gets Nasty
In this Nov. 17, 2017, file photo, Johnny Bobbitt Jr., left, Kate McClure, right, and McClure's boyfriend Mark D'Amico pose at a Citgo station in Philadelphia.   (Elizabeth Robertson /The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP, File)

Johnny Bobbit Jr seemed like the luckiest homeless guy in the world, until big money got involved. Now the 35-year-old has a lawyer who's trying to help him recover up to $300,000 that a Good Samaritan couple raised on GoFundMe in Bobbit's name, CNN reports. The couple—Kate McClure, 28, and Mark D'Amico, 39—started the campaign after Bobbit rescued a stranded McClure last October by giving her $20 in gas money on a Philadelphia freeway. Thousands of donors responded to the feel-good story by pumping $402,706 into the campaign over nine months, but Bobbit didn't get all of it. "Mark D'Amico and Kate McClure gave Johnny about $75,000," says Bobbit's lawyer. "There should be close to another $300,000 available to Johnny."

D'Amico and McClure say they gave Bobbit over half the money but are keeping the rest until he gets clean: "Giving him all that money, it's never going to happen. I'll burn it in front of him," D'Amico tells the Philadelphia Inquirer. Giving so much money to a drug addict is like "giving him a loaded gun." But Bobbit wonders how McClure, a receptionist, paid for a new BMW and vacations including a helicopter trip in the Grand Canyon. D'Amico, meanwhile, admits he took gambling money from the fund but swears he repaid it. As for Bobbit—who admits to a daily opiate addiction—he's back on the streets of Philadelphia and blames everything on the couple's "greed." GoFundMe is looking into the campaign and says it will "work to ensure ... that the donors' intentions are honored." (Bobbit originally hoped to spend his sudden windfall on helping others.)

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