OH BOY

N.J. Woman Pleads Guilty to Theft Charge in $400,000 GoFundMe Scam

Katelyn McClure teamed up with her then boyfriend and a homeless man to pull off the hoax.

A New Jersey woman pleaded guilty to one count of theft by deception Monday for her part in scamming GoFundMe donors of more than $400,000, CNN reports. Katelyn McClure, 29—who also pleaded guilty to federal charges of wire fraud last month—teamed up with her then boyfriend, Mark D’Amico, and homeless man Johnny Bobbitt Jr., to pull off the hoax. McClure had said she was driving on Interstate 95 in Philadelphia in 2017 when she ran out of gas. She claimed Bobbitt saw that she was in need of help and came to her aid with his last $20 to fill up her tank. McClure and D’Amico later posted about the “good deed” on social media and even started a GoFundMe campaign claiming that they were raising money to get the good Samaritan off the streets—when in reality the trio had known each other for about a month before concocting the scheme. McClure faces four years in prison, the recommended sentence that would run concurrently with any federal sentence incurred for the wire fraud charge. Bobbitt also pleaded guilty last Friday to one count of conspiracy to commit theft by deception.

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