Florida Doctor Charged With Stealing Donations Intended for Helene Victims, BCSO Says
WLSO - November 6, 2024 6:14 am
Mark Anthony Smith, 56.(Courtesy Buncombe County Detention Center)
BUNCOMBE COUNTY, N.C. (WLOS) — Mark Anthony Smith, a licensed doctor in Jacksonville, Fla., is charged with multiple crimes including stealing donations intended for Helene victims, according to the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO).
“It appears they were all things that are being passed out to families in need,” BCSO Detective David Reed said. “Camping stoves, Mr. Buddy heaters, propane tanks, generators – those were recovered at a local pawn shop where he had sold these items for money.”
BCSO deputies recovered more than $12,000 in stolen donations from Hearts Hurt, an Ohio non-profit working in Swannanoa. Smith is said to have stolen more than $2,000 in personal items belonging to the owner/operator of Hearts Hurt.
Smith is alleged to have stolen these items from the owner’s tent and “urinated on a cot causing damage.”
Among other things, he stands on the roadside asking people if they just want to stop and talk. He called Mark Anthony Smith a “rip off guy.”
“In came a person who pretended to be a volunteer,” Graham said. “They’re trusting it’s going to get those folks in the tents right there and he’s stealing it when I think he’s helping us unload.”
But as the BCSO continued investigating, it got even odder.
“There was video of him being interviewed by a local news media outlet down in Jacksonville,” Reed said.
Smith appeared on First Coast News, Jacksonville’s ABC affiliate, just weeks before his Halloween arrest.
“I haven’t slept in a bed in two weeks, My bed’s my truck,” Smith emotionally told the ABC station.
“It appears to be the same U-Haul he was using to steal items up here,” Reed said.
“He brought things new and he’s like ‘I’d like to donate these to help.’ When he left the next morning, he says ‘I’m going to be going to the mountain people and I need some things to take to them, sleeping bags, tents’ and so forth, so I gave him a lot,” Graham said.
Reed said instead of actually taking the goods, Smith would then go pawn the items to make money.
He is being held on a $60,000 bond in the Buncombe County Detention Center. Graham said he is thankful for the help of the BCSO.
“I would be real proud to have them looking over my heartbroken community right now,” he said.
