Those do-gooders spent my cash, says homeless beggar
A homeless man who became the object of an online campaign that raised more than US$400,000 (NZ$600,000) to get him off the streets of Philadelphia has accused the couple who set up his fundraising page of pocketing the donations themselves.
The story began when a motorist named Kate McClure ran out of petrol on a highway near the spot where Johnny Bobbitt sat each day with a sign asking for donations. ‘‘He told me to get back in the car and lock the doors,’’ McClure wrote later, on a page she set up on GoFundMe.com. ‘‘A few minutes later he comes back with a red gas can.’’
He had bought her petrol, ‘‘using his last US$20 to make sure I could get home’’. McClure, 28, a receptionist, learnt that the homeless man was a former soldier and firefighter from North Carolina who had fallen on hard times. She hoped to get him into an apartment and pay his expenses while he looked for a job, she said. The online appeal raised US%402,706. ‘‘He will never have to worry about a roof over his head again!’’ she and her boyfriend, Mark D’Amico, 39, a carpenter, wrote.
However, Bobbitt says the couple bought only a camper van where he could stay in the drive of their home in New Jersey, and a used car that soon broke down.
‘‘Nothing was put in his name,’’ Jacqueline Promislo, one of two lawyers now representing Bobbitt, said. ‘‘They were not giving him access even to enough money for food. He really didn’t have a chance.’’
Bobbitt told reporters that the couple went on holidays and bought a BMW. They denied spending his money and said that, as he was a drug addict, simply giving him the cash would be ‘‘like handing him a loaded gun’’.
Yesterday the couple appeared on NBC and said Bobbitt had blown US$25,000 in a fortnight. ‘‘His brother came into the picture, who was also living on our property, who was also an addict,’’ D’Amico added.
The couple said that there was more than US$150,000 left and they would allow for a thorough accounting and ensure that the remainder was transferred into a trust for Bobbitt. – The Times