A homeless veteran who helped a woman in need and subsequently received over $360,000 revealed in a new interview that he planned on paying it forward.
The homeless vet, Johnny Bobbitt Jr. came into the unexpected fortune after what he did for Kate McClure, a 27-year-old New Jersey woman. McClure was driving into Philadelphia to visit a friend when her car started running out of gas. She pulled onto an exit ramp but reportedly ran out just as she got to the bottom.
“My heart was beating out of my chest,” she told The Philadelphia Inquirer at the time. “I didn’t know what the heck to do.”
McClure called her boyfriend, 38-year-old Mark D’Amico, and asked him to come get her. Suddenly, a homeless man appeared out of nowhere and offered to help her.
Bobbitt, who at the time was identified only as Johnny, reportedly spent his last $20 on gas to help McClure get home. She didn’t have any cash at the time to repay him, but she returned several times and paid him back a few dollars at a time.
The couple soon learned of Bobbitt’s background with the Marines, his drug addiction, and the money issues that led him to becoming homeless. They decided to launch a GoFundMe fundraiser for him, which raised over $360,000 after the story went viral.
After the story circulated online, the pair reunited and appeared on ABC News’ “Good Morning America” — where the formerly homeless man said he planned on donating a portion of it to charity.
“This money was given to help me. Why not help other people in similar situations or people that are actively helping other people in different situations?” he told the network.
“Everybody out there is facing some kind of struggle, so if I can touch their life, the way mine was touched, [it’d be] an amazing feeling. I want to feel the feeling on the opposite end.”
Many readers praised Bobbitt for having the desire to help others after struggling for so long.
“What an awesome individual doing what we all should do with money-give, live and save-in that order. Thank you not only for your service to our country but for your willingness to pay it forward. God will continue to bless you, I am sure,” one Newsiosity reader commented on the site’s Facebook page.
“This man gave something to every American before his kindness to this lady. He served in the military for all of us, but he keeps giving from the heart. This is amazing and may God bless him more and the young lady for keeping her promise, so he can keep giving,” another added.