We’ve seen it time and time again: someone puts up a campaign for “medical bills,” totally forgetting to include the material fact that the person for whom they are raising money was wasted and brought it upon themselves by driving drunk.
The case we’re about to share with you is particularly egregious in that the beneficiary of the campaign is a husband and father who already had a drunk driving charge on his record when police say he crashed his brand new Harley into an Iowa day care facility.
The GoFundMe campaign, established June 11, reads:
Riley got in a motorcycle accident and hit a brick wall. He will be out of work for a while and has some serious medical bills along with the normal bills that he won’t be able to pay until he can return to work. We’re asking for any help. Anything will be appreciated.
Just in case the campaign disappears, here’s an archive.
Yeah, so, the police version of the story says Riley “failed to negotiate a curve” and was taken to the hospital for “minor injuries.” It also states that he was arrested on suspicion of second-offense operating while intoxicated, a kinda important bit that the GoFundMe campaign happens to leave out.
As we already know, GoFundMe Terms and Conditions have a bit about criminal defense, but as we also already know, they play fast and loose with their interpretation of their own rule.
Rachael Ramaker, the owner of the day care, has lashed out at the fundraiser, calling it a fraud.
“They’re making it seem like he was in a horrific accident, but (through) no fault of his own and that the medical bills are so high,” Ramaker said. “They’re not, it’s a complete lie.”
Ramaker said Little Dreamers’ wall isn’t even made of brick, suffered next to no damage, and noted the Sheriff’s Office report that characterized Burton’s injuries as “minor.” She said she wants the page removed from GoFundMe and sent a report to the company asking for it to be taken down.
“This is not a sob story,” she said. “This is blatantly lying.”
It appears the page was briefly removed a few days ago, but is live as of press time. So far, it’s raised $540 of a $2000 goal. Thankfully, there was no one at the day care at the time of the accident.