81yo Texas delivery driver’s 700k fundraiser for sick wife pulled after organizer revealed to be his daughter
An 81-year-old delivery driver from Texas, who went viral trying to raise money to help pay for his wife’s cancer treatment, has now had a crowdfunding campaign on GoFundMe pulled. GoFundMe reportedly intervened after it was revealed that the organizer was not a concerned neighbor, but rather the delivery driver’s daughter.
Last week, door cam footage showing the elderly Donald Johnson delivering luggage to a resident in the Dallas-Fort Worth area went viral online. The footage was posted by the supposed resident, Erin Howell, on GoFundMe along with a caption that revealed Johnson had been working the grueling manual labor job of delivering lost luggage back to the rightful homes for three years after his wife, Josephine, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer.
“The other day, my door cam caught an 81-year-old man slowly and painstakingly carrying my heavy luggage that had been lost on a recent flight up a steep flight of stairs. He looked absolutely exhausted, and his steps were heavy with effort,” the caption on the GoFundMe read, according to The New York Post.
“It completely broke my heart to see a man of his age doing such intense, grueling physical labor,” wrote Erin Howell, who, at the time, was thought to have been the crowdfunders organizer. Shortly after the campaign was launched, donations began flooding in, with the total amount quickly reaching $700k from sympathetic people online.
Donald Johnson’s GoFundMe gets taken down
However, the crowdfunding campaign saw the plug get pulled by GoFundMe itself after receiving a tip on September 25 that raised questions about who was really behind the campaign. While the GoFundMe page identified the organizer as Erin Howell, it would soon be revealed that it was actually Donald and Josephine’s daughter, Amy Johnson, who had set everything up.
In a statement to NewsNation, GoFundMe said: “Our Trust & Safety team identified factual misrepresentations, which directly violate our Terms of Service.”
However, Amy insisted that it hadn’t been an attempt to scam donors and that everything had been real. The story of her father’s hard work, her mother’s cancer, the parents’ money troubles, and the footage (which she claimed she got from a neighbor who wanted to remain anonymous), were all genuine, according to the daughter.
Amy Johnson claimed she only used the persona of a concerned neighbor because she believed that it would connect better with people. However, according to GoFundMe’s terms of service, misrepresenting the organizer’s identity or relationship to the beneficiary violates the terms of service.
GoFundMe has since refunded all of the donors, “Ensuring GoFundMe is a safe and trusted place to give and receive help is our top priority,” the company said in its statement.
Amy has since set up another crowdfunding campaign on GiveSendGo, according to The Post. In it, she addresses the situation, claiming that her mother’s treatment and her father’s age hadn’t changed and that they still needed help. So far, the family has raised just under $50,000 of a $100,000 goal.
(Featured image: Amy Johnson, GoFundMe)
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