You may remember this heartwarming story of a Good Samaritan, but as it turns out
it was all a lie. You're watching What's Trending, I'm
Martine Beerman. Make sure to subscribe for more social media and news stories
daily. The story is kind of sucky, but it also has a good ending so stick with us
here. A viral GoFundMe campaign has exposed three criminals who tricked
donors into donating more than four hundred thousand dollars. That's a lot of
dollars. And a lot of trickery. Shame on you!
It's trickery! You thought you'd get away with it, but nooo we will not stand for
trickery here. New Jersey resident Kate McClure claimed this man, Johnny Bobbitt
used his last twenty dollars to help her get gas after her car had broken down.
She and her boyfriend then started a GoFundMe campaign to help this Good
Samaritan get off the street. Which when I heard this I thought this was the
coolest thing. Like so awesome, amazing story,
totally warmed my heart. And then okay because they were doing something really
nice, things went viral, and now have gotten progressively more complicated. In
August, Bobbitt accused the couple of withholding fund. So, just to go back
here, Bobbitt is the homeless man and the couple was saying that they were holding
on to the money for him to keep it safe because he was back on drugs and they
were concerned that he was then going to use the money for that. But the couple
was busted by police in November. Burlington County Prosecutor Scott
Kathina said "The entire campaign was predicated on a lie. Less than an hour
after the GoFundMe campaign went live, McClure in a text exchange with a friend
stated that the story about Bobbitt assisting her
fake." The text apparently said "okay so wait, the gas part is completely made-up
but the guy isn't. I had to make something up to make people feel bad so
shush about the made-up stuff." Okay, I'm not at all about the criminal activity
stuff. Not in me so much, but these people have clearly not watched CSI or or like
done any research on any crimes that were ever committed. You do not leave a
paper trail, and even though your cell phone is not technically paper, it's an
even better trail than paper because it's out there in the cloud. Hello! This
is the part that has me happy, is that GoFundMe who has cooperated in the
investigation has agreed to give 14,000 people their money back.
Like, firstly to those 14,000 people out there, I just want to say how incredible
I think you guys are for wanting to donate and make somebody else's life
better. I hope that the situation like this doesn't make you not want to do
that in the future, these are a couple of bad eggs and I hope that they've not
spoiled it for every other good deed you could possibly do. GoFundMe said "while
this type of behavior by an individual is extremely rare, it's unacceptable and
clearly it has consequences. Committing fraud whether it takes place on or
offline is against the law. We are fully cooperating and assisting
law enforcement officials to recover every dollar withdrawn by miss McClure
and mr. D'Amico." So what actually happened to all of that really heartfelt
donation money? The four hundred thousand dollars that I was telling you guys about.
"and it's gone." The couple allegedly spent it on things that they otherwise would
not have been able to afford. Check out these awesome vacation pics and this
sweet trip to Vegas. They also bought a BMW and surprise surprise, well at least
they paid back debt, but they had debt which they paid to their relatives in
the amount of around $9,000. And if somebody had been borrowing massive amounts
of money from you over time or even over a short period of time, don't you think
that maybe the family members would have been a little suspicious when they come
back they're like here's 9 grand! Hey mom and dad I just raised $400,000 for a
homeless man and then I bought myself a BMW and here's $9,000! Maybe? Like where would all of
that all of come from just the other nice people were like oh you did a nice
thing for someone else so we're gonna pay you for that. No, not a thing. What
they take? Like I mean I almost a hundred percent they gave them an seventy five
thousand dollars. What is that? They gave him how much
yeah they didn't seriously they would have happily taken $400,000 from this
man if they didn't have to give him a $75,000 to try and keep quiet but like
this isn't like an agency situation. You don't get a cut of what you earn for
this person by doing a good deed. No. And we know that all the stuff is true
because they surrendered to the police. And they went on vacation and they
publicized that vacation and they bought a really nice car and they gave away a
lot of money, it's very bizarre thing to happen had you not just gotten a whole
bunch of money. Worst criminals ever! All of their new
shiny toys and possessions were seized by the police, rightfully so. And those
pricey handbags? Well they now belong to this so what do you guy. So what do you think about
these people having stolen all this money? And would it make you less likely
to donate to a GoFundMe in the future? Let us know in the comments and for more
trends head to whatstrending.com