Right around this time last year, a story went viral out of Philadelphia.

A woman named Kate McClure ran out of gas in Philadelphia in the middle of the night and she didn’t have any cash.  And a homeless guy named Johnny Bobbitt walked to the gas station and used HIS last $20 to help her out.

So Kate and her husband Mark D’Amico set up a GoFundMe to thank him . . . and it wound up raising $400,000.  A pretty great, heartwarming story, right?  Well, we should’ve all known better.

It turns out the three of them came up with the story together as a way to scam people out of money.

Apparently Kate and Mark met Johnny about a month earlier, and then they met up with him a few times and gave him some money . . . and they all came up with the story together.  And Kate and Mark were also hoping to land a book deal out of it.

Now they’re all facing criminal charges of conspiracy and theft by deception.  Kate and Mark turned themselves in on Wednesday . . . and Johnny was arrested later that night.

(NBC 10 – Philadelphia