Man demands apology, says police are wrongly calling him a crime suspe
By Bob Mayo
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ELIZABETH TOWNSHIP, Pensylvania (WTAE) — Jarrett Gunter of Penn Hills says in his work as a field mortgage inspector, he may enter dozens of padlocked homes a day.
He’s upset that Elizabeth Township police posted images of him on Facebook, calling him a suspect in a reported burglary and trespassing.
“I was doing my job on Monday and inspecting this home, and whenever I walked into the home, there was cameras pointing directly at me. I’ve never walked into a home that there was cameras pointing at me. So I immediately left the property,” Gunter told Pittsburgh’s Action News 4.
Elizabeth Township police got images from those cameras from the owner of the home on Ridge Road and posted them on Facebook, asking for the public’s help identifying the man.
The images were shared by news outlets.
That set a firestorm in motion for Gunter, who says he was just doing his job — and that paperwork from his employer, A & S Booker, had the combination for the lockbox on the door of the home.
He said he entered to do his job of taking pictures to document the conditions inside.
Now, he said that as a result of being wrongly accused, his kids are being harassed and he’s lost work in his second job as a contractor. He said he is also ordained as a minister, and this situation has hurt his reputation.
“I got calls and videos from friends and family stating that they see me on the news and that they see that there’s a post out there saying that I’m a robber and a burglar,” Gunter said.
He wants a public acknowledgment of his innocence.
“This has affected my kids to the point where they have their friends messaging them, saying that their dad’s a criminal, that ‘I seen them on the news and my parents say that you’re not allowed to come over the house now because they don’t want that kind of trouble over here,'” Gunter said.
Elizabeth Township police Chief Ken Honick declined to speak on camera but said the woman who owns the home has provided documentation showing her ownership and said that no one else has a right to be there. She made the same assertions in a telephone conversation with Pittsburgh’s Action News 4.
The chief said he can’t say more because this is still an active investigation and can’t rule out it could lead to charges.
“The main thing I want was an apology from them, an apology on their website stating that what they claimed and what they posted was false. But I didn’t get any of that to begin with. And the negligence of them just leaving me out there to fry,” Gunter said.
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