After Tuesday night’s premiere of National Geographic channel’s new show Doomsday Preppers, I was compelled to write this humorous blog post poking fun at some of the crazy preppers featured on the show, comparing their ridiculous stockpiling habits to that of hoarders. Kellene Bishop is one of the preppers I wrote about, whose Orem, Utah home is practically a labyrinth of hoarded food stashes.
Kellene prides herself on being self-reliant and financially independent. She makes her living as owner of PreparednessPro, a prepper blog and community site “devoted to providing guidance and encouragement for Peaceful Preparedness,” where she also sells expensive video-based classes on topics such as cheese preservation, survival sanitation, and cooking with solar ovens. She also teaches self-defense classes to women for rape prevention, citing that when society falls apart it is often women who are the first victims.
Watching Kellene on Doomsday Preppers, I got the sense the lady was a little kooky, but I could appreciate what she was trying to do and even admired her sense of purpose in helping other people to prepare.
But that was before I heard Kellene Bishop might be a scam artist.
Today a random blog reader alerted me to this Ripoff Report about Kellene Bishop‘s shady past running her own commercial lending brokerage, in which she apparently swindled people out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. She later filed for bankruptcy to the tune of 2 million dollars in 2009.
Here’s a sampling of some of the claims made against Kellene Bishop and her husband Scott, which I’ll let speak for themselves:
“It is official! The ugly couple have had their illegal debts discharged! They had over 2 million dollars discharged after offer a course that guaranteed $750,000.00 dollars a year to their customers! My oh my how the Terrible Two know how to manage money! SHE NEVER CLOSED A COMMERCIAL LOAN IN HER LIFE AND PORTRAYED HERSELF AS A GURU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
“Kellene Bishop, a scammer who ran a course called Commercial Career, now runs Preparednesspro.com. She recently wrote a despicable blog about the hard money world and the loan commitment fees involved. THIS CRAZY PIG DID THE SAME EXACT THING AND MORE WITH HER COMMERCIAL CAREER COURSE. SHE TOOK HUGE RETAINER FEES THAT THE HARD MONEY PEOPLE COULD ONLY DREAM OF AND DIDN’T HAVE ANY SOURCES TO FUND THE LOANS! She then claimed bankruptcy for over TWO MILLION DOLLARS!”
“What did the Big K do after she got sued by hundreds of people whom she took huge retainer fees from? She claimed bankruptcy for 2 million dollars!”
“Take a look at the bankruptcy papers. Her list of creditors were a mile a long and she scammed every single one. She lied to Nat Geo about working in Corporate America because she never did. She ran scam businesses out of her house that was worth less than $200,000.00.”
And here are some of their reactions to Kellene’s appearance on Doomsday Preppers:
“Kellene Bishop has been filmed showcasing thousands of dollars worth of food at her home in Utah. She does not mention that foreclosure proceedings have started and the foreclosure on her home featured in the show is highly probable. Once again, she has portrayed herself as being a righteous and self-relying person yet the truth is the complete opposite. She claims the end of days are near. The reality is that her days are numbered in her home because she spent all of her money on food instead of fulfilling her obligation to pay her mortgage.”
“It is ironic that Ms. Bishop has stockpiled enough food to fill a supermarket because she has come up with the perfect recipe for her disaster. Why on Earth would Kellene actually sign on with Nat Geo to allow them to film her stockpiled food so all of the goodies saved for doomsday can aired on national television after claiming Chapter 7? Think about it because her bankruptcy papers do not lie. They clearly show that her new business, Preparedness Pro, did not make any money as recently as 2009. The question for her creditors, the attorneys for her mortgage company and the bankruptcy trustee should be: Where did Kellene & Scott Bishop get the money to buy that much food?”
“Perhaps Nat Geo should do a follow up on the Bishops when the foreclosure is completed on their home in Utah. If might turn into a Dog Day Afternoon when Kellene and Scott defend the bungalow like it is the Alamo when the bank shows up to take it back. They clearly demonstrated how they are heavily armed and ready to communicate by Morse code under the cover of darkness.”
Did National Geographic fail to do a background check on this woman? Is it ethical to put Kellene Bishop on a national television show where she’s portrayed as a champion of morality, self-sufficiency and financial freedom?
Further reading: Scaring People for a Living – Kellene Bishop
Update 2/24/11:
One of the commenters who spoke up against The Bishops on this blog has requested via email that I remove their comment, due to being threatened by The Bishops with legal action. All comments by this person as well as references to this person’s name in other people’s coments have been removed upon request.
I’ve also noticed that comments made in defense of The Bishops seem to be coming from an IP address located in Orem, Utah–the same city where The Bishops reside. Isn’t it ironic…don’t you think?
