A New Jersey couple who raised $400,000 to help a homeless man who helped the girlfriend when she ran out of gas was ordered to give the rest of the money to the man. Homelessness isn’t always about lack of money. Some homeless people have deeper issues that a GoFundMe drive can’t help. Think twice before projecting your own biased ideas on others without asking.
A judge ordered a New Jersey couple Thursday to give a homeless Philadelphia man whatever’s left of the $400,000 they raised for him.
Katie McClure and her boyfriend, Mark D’Amico, were told by the Burlington, New Jersey, judge to turn over the remaining money they raised through a GoFundMe campaign for Johnny Bobbitt, according to NBC Philadelphia.
The judge also demanded that McClure and D’Amico provide a full accounting of each dollar they collected, the station reported.
Bobbitt inspired the fundraising campaign after he gave McClure his last $20 when she ran out of gas on a freeway exit ramp last November outside Philadelphia.
Couple ordered to hand over money they raised for homeless veteran
It sounded like a good idea at the time. A homeless man helped out a woman who had run out of gas and she decided to host a GoFundMe drive to help the man. It raised $400,000. The woman and her boyfriend then decided they should regulate how the homeless guy got the money after he blew through $25,000 in two weeks on drugs, alcohol and gifts to family members. The man, Johnny Bobbitt, isn’t homeless simply because he has no money or made a poor choice, there are deeper issues that the helping couple can’t address and shouldn’t. They should have given him all the money at the start and if he used it all up then that would be his choice.
If it were me I would give Johnny back his twenty and probably another twenty as thanks and ask if he needed any other assistance. If he did then I would find a group or agency who could help him long term.
It should always be up to the struggling person if they want help or not and they should have a say in what kind of help they get.
