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Sweet charity turns sour

A benefactor and his recipients are dismayed. He says the Brandon couple betrayed his trust; they say he was too controlling.

By ANDREW MEACHAM and S.I. ROSENBAUM
Published April 29, 2007

Tania Tippie is flanked by son Brandon Tippie, left, and husband Ed "Tippie" Tippie. Front, from left, are their other children, Joshua Landers, Richard Lewis, Courtney Tippie and Chris Lewis.
	[Times photo: Skip O'Rourke]

ADVERTISEMENT [Special to the Times: Tania Tippe] Benefactor John Smith, right, with Brandon Tippie during a trip to Orlando that he arranged. Smith owns a business in Orlando.

BRANDON -- You'll get no more surprise parties, John Smith wrote.

No more Disney World trips. No more Daytona 500 tickets or television interviews.

He was through.

"You & Tippie let me down, broke my heart and shattered my trust, " he wrote in a March e-mail to Tania and Edward Tippie. "This was a one-time shot, and you both blew it."

When Smith met the Tippies in October 2006, they were at rock bottom.

Edward Tippie, a truck driver from Hillsborough County, had lost his job after a traumatic crash. Tania Tippie had been convicted of welfare fraud. Struggling with debt and medical bills, the family split up to save money.

Smith appeared to the Tippies -- and to the media he courted -- as an "angel." The Orlando entrepreneur reunited the family and raised nearly $20, 000 to pay their rent and power bill for a year. He lavished gifts on the family's five children.

"I was their big friend, their big champion, " he said.

Now, Smith and the Tippies don't speak.

He says they abused his generosity and broke his trust.

They say his charity came with a price too steep to pay.

* * *

On Sept. 15, 2003, a suicidal driver swerved into Edward Tippie's path. The driver, Bryan Randall, used Tippie's truck as a weapon to kill himself and his young son.

The next day, Tippie was fired after telling his boss he wasn't ready to drive again.

Progressive, Randall's insurer, refused to pay Tippie's lost wages because the policy covered only accidents, not deliberate crashes.

The family went on welfare. Times were tough. Four of the five Tippie children suffer from physical or mental disorders, including cerebral palsy, mild retardation and bipolar disorder.

After eight months, Tippie found another job as a tow truck driver, but Tania didn't report the new income. In September, she was convicted of welfare fraud.

They were evicted from their Tampa home for unpaid rent. To save money, Tania and three children went to an east Tampa duplex. Her husband and two children moved into a mobile home 20 minutes away.

Edward Tippie did prison time in the 1980s for armed robbery. Tania was twice convicted of writing bad checks. They've been evicted several times, had fights that wound up in family court and have come close to divorce.

But things had never looked as bad as they did now.

Enter John Smith.

* * *

Smith, 39, the owner of a company that installs hurricane shutters, is accustomed to hard work and success.

He was moved when he read about the Tippies' plight in the Orlando Sentinel.

"If you're successful, you help people, " he said. "I want to give back, and here's a great opportunity."

At their first meeting, Tania recalled, "He had everything laid out and ready to go." All they had to do was agree.

She remembers wondering: Is this guy for real? Can he do all the things he says he'll do?

Smith sprang into action, raising money through the radio, the Internet and a trucking magazine. From the start, his help was marked by grand gestures.

He tells this story: One night, Tania called in tears. She had no money for a birthday cake.

So Smith called Publix, he says, and paid for a cake and a $100 gift certificate.

"I felt like -- have you ever seen Pretty Woman?" Smith recalled. "You know the scene where she can't get anyone to wait on her to get the clothes for the hoity-toity event, and she goes to Hector Elizondo's office and he picks up the phone to call the place?

"I felt like Hector Elizondo."

In November, he brought the Tippies to Orlando for a gala benefit. They stayed in a luxury hotel suite. Smith took them to Universal Studios and SeaWorld. They went backstage to meet the walruses. Smith bought them all souvenir jackets.

The weekend climaxed in a catered "Meet the Tippies" fundraiser. In all, Smith raised nearly $20,000, he told the family and the press.

Smith says he enjoyed the experience.

"Partly, it's ego, " he said recently. "You're like, 'Man, I'm good.' There's pride: 'Man, we helped them.'"

* * *

By February, Smith found the family a home: a fixer-upper in Brandon.

The money he had raised would go into a trust to pay a year's rent and electric bills. To get a break on the rent, the family would paint and fix the drywall and flooring. Smith made the family agree to save $150 a week in a "forced savings plan."

And as the family prepared to move in, Smith urged Tania to get rid of all their belongings.

"I wanted to give her a fresh start, " Smith said. "As if that's a bad thing."

Tania agreed to throw away the family's dishes. But she drew the line at her prized collection of porcelain angel figurines.

Smith told the Tippies to install a railing in the dining room and to paint their garage floor gray. Tania also says Smith told her to put her 13-year-old daughter on birth control; he denies that.

Their relationship was becoming strained.

Once, Tania asked Smith if he could hire a contractor to help with remodeling work. Smith replied that she could do the work herself if she weren't so lazy, Tania said.

"I take care of five kids, " she said. "Four of them are handicapped. He just didn't want to understand that."

"I definitely called her lazy, " Smith said. "Definitely. ... If you're trying to motivate someone who is lazy and is making stupid choices, do you do it by being nice?"

* * *

In the new home, the family finally slept under one roof. Tania was grateful. But she still wondered about Smith: He'd said he raised roughly $20, 000, but only $17,000 ended up in the trust.

Tania e-mailed him: "We was just wondering where the other $3,000.00 went?"

Smith fired back a reply: Apart from a cash gift of $1,100 to the family, he said he had reimbursed himself for fundraising costs.

That included the theme park tickets, the souvenir jackets, the catering, $880 in printing and mailing costs, and $360 for "media coverage tapes" -- nearly $2,000 altogether.

"Some free advice, Tania, " Smith concluded. "Try to remember not to bite the hand that has fed you."

It wasn't their only conflict about money.

In late October, a letter came from Progressive Insurance: Edward Tippie was getting $10,000 for the crash. Smith thought the insurance company was lowballing them.

Smith asked her for the letter so he could get it to a lawyer. He imagined the family getting $50,000 or more. They could buy the house, pay off bills and save for the future.

Tania kept putting him off.

Christmas came, and Smith organized donations of gifts for the family. In January, he took the Tippies to Disney World to celebrate another birthday.

He kept asking for the insurance letter.

"I asked her 20 times, " he said. "Where's the paperwork?"

Finally, Tania came clean.

They had gotten the $10,000 insurance check in December. They had already spent the money.

Tania told him they used it to repay personal loans and buy car insurance and Christmas gifts.

They hadn't told Smith because they feared his reaction, she said.

"I wanted to tell him, " Tania said. "I really did. It haunted me every day. And when I did tell him, my worst fears came true."

* * *

A few days later, Smith sent the Tippies an e-mail ending their relationship.

"There will not be any housewarming party in April, " he wrote. "Nor any more surprise birthday parties for your kids. ... Your greed and shortsightedness, in my opinion, p----- away a great opportunity."

Tania cried. Edward was mystified.

"I don't know why he would blow up about it, " Edward Tippie said, "because the whole point of this was for me to get ahead."

To Smith, there is no mystery. "Why not tell me?" he said. "You know why? Because then the gravy train would stop."

If only Tania had told him right away about the check, he said. He could have told her how to spend it.

In any case, the Tippies' attorney, James Pacitti, said Smith was wrong. The policy in question had a limit of $10,000.

"They could have hired the most high-profile attorney in the country, and the most they could have gotten was $10,000, " Pacitti said.

* * *

Those who know Smith and the Tippies struggle to make sense of their rift.

Orlando radio host Bud Hedinger, who interviewed Tania, warned Smith that the Tippies might take advantage of Smith's generosity.

"I simply cautioned him to be careful in a situation like this, " Hedinger said, "and to make sure you are not leading exclusively from your heart."

The falling out has saddened Deltona musician Lloyd Marcus, who led an earlier fundraising drive and wrote a song about the Tippies, It's About Love.

"People came together, and now this whole thing is going to get tainted because John and Tania are having a feud, " Marcus said.

* * *

Smith and the Tippies have not communicated since his parting e-mail.

A tension between charity and dependence, goodwill and obligation, wears at the family like a rope burn.

The Tippies have settled into the home Smith found for them. A big-screen television dominates the living room, near a rug with wolf heads. They have managed to put $1,100 into savings since moving in.

Tania's figurines take up three shelves in the dining room. There are large angels and small. Mary and Joseph hover over the baby Jesus, all of them inside a blue fluorescent globe that lights up.

"The home is beautiful, " Tania said. "My family is under one roof. I do thank him for that."

Still, she said, "If someone like that came forward again, I would be very skeptical."

For his part, Smith said he will never again try to help a family like the Tippies. If he wants to be charitable, he'll give to the Red Cross.

"I made an investment in their character, " he said. "But some people you just can't fix."

Andrew Meacham can be reached at ameacham@sptimes.com or (813) 661-2431. S.I. Rosenbaum can be reached at srosenbaum@sptimes.com or (813) 661-2442.

[Last modified April 28, 2007, 21:31:59]