MOUNT HOLLY, N.J. | A heartwarming tale of a homeless man using his last $20 to help a stranded woman purchase gas was actually a complete lie, fabricated to get strangers to donate more than $400,000 to help the down-and-out good Samaritan, a prosecutor said Thursday.
Burlington County prosecutor Scott Coffina announced criminal charges against the couple who shared the story with newspapers and television stations along with the homeless man who conspired with them to tell the story.
Coffina said the money, donated to homeless Marine veteran Johnny Bobbitt, will be refunded to people who saw the story and contributed to him through a GoFundMe page set up by the couple, Mark D’Amico and Katelyn McClure.
“The entire campaign was predicated on a lie,” Coffina said. “It was fictitious and illegal and there are consequences.”
Coffina said almost no part of the tale was true. McClure didn’t run out of gas. Bobbitt didn’t spot her in trouble and give her money.
Instead, the group met close to a Philadelphia casino in October 2017 shortly before the three told their story.
Less than an hour after the couple set up the page to solicit donations, McClure sent a text message to a friend acknowledging the story was “completely made up,” prosecutors said.
“I had to make something up to make people feel bad,” McClure said in a text — one of 60,000 reviewed by prosecutors — to a friend.
