Property manager: Beaufort thrift store paid no rent, electric bills

A charitable organization under federal investigation didn’t pay required rent or utility bills before the Beaufort thrift store it operated was evicted this week, the property agent said Thursday.

Marines and Mickey, which leased 154 Robert Smalls Parkway to operate Vintage 154 thrift shop, was served an eviction notice Monday. The contents of the store — clothes, furniture and other household items — were moved to the side of the road. That was cleaned up Thursday afternoon.

No rent was required for the first three months of the 19-month lease Marines and Mickey signed in January, Beaufort County court records show. When the rent schedule began, the organization never paid, said Bryan Perrucci of Southeastern Management Group.

Marines and Mickey was also to have paid the electric bill but never changed it over into the organization’s name, Perrucci said. He said the eviction wasn’t personal, but just business, and that representatives of the organization didn’t follow through on promises to pay.

“It was just one story after another,” Perrucci said.

Three phone messages left for Marines and Mickey founder John Simpson this week weren’t returned. Three more messages left for a number listed for the organization also weren’t returned.

Marines and Mickey is under federal investigation following claims it misused money and that Simpson embellished his military record while raising money. Investigators are following leads related to questionable business practices and potential fraud, a Naval Criminal Investigative Service spokesman said Wednesday.

Marines and Mickey’s mission was to send Marines and their families to Disney World and provide for families to attend graduations at Marine recruit depots in San Diego and on Parris Island, according to the nonprofit organization’s profile on business networking website LinkedIn. A website for the organization, www.marinesandmickey.org, is no longer in service.

Kimberly McDonough managed Vintage 154 thrift store, according to an April report from WSAV about a theft reported at the store. She told the television station Marines and Mickey had sent 300 families to Parris Island and more than 30 to Disney World, the station reported.

McDonough was Marines and Mickey’s executive board officer, secretary and director of operations, according a LinkedIn profile under her name. She was with the organization from May 2014 until this past May, the profile said.

The organization dissolved in June, state business filings show. Before then, it had set up a thrift store in a modest building with a veterinarian’s office and wireless store. Two other thrift stores are on the same side of the road and within sight and a short walk.

Motorists traveling Robert Smalls Parkway on Thursday morning were greeted with a soggy mess of clothes and other items strewn along the roadway after the eviction.

A large truck from 1-800-Got-Junk arrived Thursday afternoon, and employees using shovels and pitchforks cleared the items. An employee said the company would sort the items and donate what it could, including the many clothes.

After 48 hours, the property could have been removed by local government, the eviction notice says. The items could also have been picked up during normal trash collection, according to the notice.

The property manager has 48 hours to remove the property before being cited for illegal dumping, Bromage said. But the landlord was given a grace period because Wednesday’s heavy rain posed a safety issue, he said.

Perrucci said it was his understanding that the owners had 48 hours to remove the property before the landlord was required to clean it up. He said the truck would have been there sooner if not for the rain associated with Tropical Storm Julia.

This story was originally published September 15, 2016 at 10:09 AM with the headline "Property manager: Beaufort thrift store paid no rent, electric bills."