Posted on 08/26/2018 4:25:19 PM PDT by NohSpinZone
Johnny Bobbitt, famously rescued from the streets of Philadelphia last October after word of his kindness to a stranger went viral and led to a $400,000 GoFundMe campaign, is once again homeless, drug-addicted — and panhandling for money.
The couple who started the fund-raiser say that in helping Bobbitt, they've spent or given him more than half of the money donated by thousands of people around the world and they are withholding the roughly $200,000 balance. Bobbitt says he fears that the couple, Kate McClure and her boyfriend, Mark D'Amico, squandered much of the money. He worries there may be little, or nothing, left.
(Excerpt) Read more at 2.philly.com ...
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Get real!
The couple are doing the right thing.
The guy is hopeless if he spent the money on drugs.
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They can hold the money but not spend it. Shame on them if they did.
The couple has take a sabbatical from work, both of them, and have taken three vacations and have bought a new BMW. Does that sound like “right thing” to you?
People are homeless and poor for a reason.
Giving them a house and money without fixing the underlying problem won’t help.
This isn’t rocket surgery.
He needs his share of the money to be placed into a Trust.
The Courts need to appoint an Advocate to manage that money for him and dole it out as needed, but with prudence and limitations. Only so much per quarter, or every three months. He should not still be beholden to this couple who have their own point of view on what is ‘fair’.
One day, this homeless Vet may get tired of that couple trying to do his thinking for him. He probably knows where they live and where they work. Even kind and gentle people have their limits when they think someone is ripping them off or treating them in a condescending manner.
What ever happened to that guy that did the Kraft Mac ‘n’ Cheese commercial. He only had one line in one commercial that I ever saw. I thought Kraft paid him $100,000 but it was a lot of free advertising for them in other ways.
Didn’t know about this story.
I agree with you on that. I did not take part in the GoFundMe campaign. Also, this couple was not qualified to act as executors of his trust, IMO. We donate to qualified charities who help the homeless in their shelters.
You must mean Ted Williams.
I think he's dropped out of sight again.
Exactly. He’s homeless because all his money goes to drugs, and he has chosen that set-up so all his money can go to drugs. It doesn’t just happen out of the blue.
GoFundMe exists so people can feel better about themselves. Almost anyone can set up an account for almost any reason and there's there's really no accountability as to how the money is spent.
This couple raised money to help out a homeless drug addict. The story went viral and way more money than they ever expected to see wound up under their control. What they did give Bobbitt was quickly squandered on drugs. So they spent some of it on themselves? Can't say I really blame them.
Same here.
Money is too scarce and tight to go wasting it.
I'll give it where i know where it's going.
They could give the money to a homeless shelter that is run with good rules, like Salvation Army or something. GoFundMe donations are really not traceable not accountable to anyone. People can pretty much do anything they want with the money. They are not nonprofits with by-laws and a charter; they certainly are not businesses. Donors know that, or at least they should.
I don’t think they could spend any of it on themselves under the pretenses they started the campaign. I am thinking their legal issues have only begun. They may be looking at criminal charges eventually.
Sounds like criminal theft to me.
This saga is ripe with inconsistencies. Something is awry here, but the real truth will be hard to me by.
GoFundMe donations - people squander the money on themselves all the time. There is no legal accountability. The donors should know this. Foolish from the git-go, and foolish to demand that they spend it the way they said they would. First of all, it is enabling, so the worst thing for the guy, so that is a good decision. Second of all, people just gave them money and assumed they would spend it the way the donors assumed they would.
“Assume’ makes an Ass out of u and me.
They should have prepaid an apartment and utilities for 10 years.
No one in their right mind would just freely voluntarily send money to a guy with an Italian name a New Jersey. LOL
That’s not his call to make. The couple raised it by fraudulently promising the donors they would give it to him. If we had a DOJ they would be investigated for wire fraud.
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