News organizations across the country, including The Post, picked up the inspiring story - none of which was true.Īnd within a year, their sweet story had started to sour. McClure said he walked to a gas station and returned with a can of gas. "He told me to get back in the car and lock the doors." "He saw me pull over and knew something was wrong," McClure said at the time. The couple concocted a heartwarming story about how Bobbitt came to McClure's rescue when she ran out of gas on the highway while driving from Philadelphia to her home in New Jersey. In November 2017, D'Amico and McClure created a fundraising page called "Paying It Forward," in which they said they were raising money to help rehabilitate a homeless veteran. Moneys were diverted and used to Kate and Mark's benefit." And it was very real in terms of Mark and Kate wanting to help him." But, he added, "somewhere along the line, things got blurred. "The plea resulted from a cost-benefit analysis that Mark had to do given his circumstances," Mark Davis, D'Amico's attorney, told The Washington Post.ĭavis said that although there was a false component to the story, "Johnny Bobbitt is real. All three are awaiting sentencing, according to a statement from the U.S. McClure previously pleaded guilty to the same charge, and Bobbitt - who had captivated hearts across the country - pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering. In the latest development, D'Amico, 42, pleaded guilty Monday in federal court in Camden, N.J., to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Coffina, the prosecutor of Burlington County, N.J., told reporters a year later. It instead became one about a fraudulent narrative used to fool thousands of donors into giving $400,000 to help Johnny Bobbitt Jr. As a thank-you, the woman, Kate McClure, and her boyfriend at the time, Mark D'Amico, started a GoFundMe campaign to help him get back on his feet.īut since grabbing national headlines in 2017, that story unraveled. The feel-good story emerged in time for the holidays - a homeless veteran spent his last $20 on gasoline to help a stranger stranded on the side of the road.