‘I don’t call the police’: Dog the Bounty Hunter defends not working with police in Brian Laundrie hunt
Former reality TV star says he only calls police if people are shooting at him
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Duane Chapman, aka Dog the Bounty Hunter, revealed that he is not actively working alongside law enforcement during his hunt for Brian Laundrie, the finace of Gabby Petito who disappeared after her disappearance and death.
During an appearance on far-right network Newsmax, Mr Chapman told former Trump White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer that he generally does not collaborate with police in the course of his work and would not be doing so during his search for Mr Laundrie.
“I guess we kind of do the same thing but I really don’t pay too much attention, like they don’t pay too much attention to me,” Mr Chapman said. “After 45 years, I don’t call the police, they’re usually called on me – so I don’t know what they’re doing.”
He said he does not have avenues for collaborating with law enforcement on his searches.
“I can’t call up and say, ‘Hey, G-Man, what’s going where’s your leads?’” he said. “And they don’t call me and say, ‘Hey, Dog, where’s your leads?’ so I have no idea.”
According to Mr Chapman, the only times he has involved law enforcement with his past bail enforcement operations has been when people begin shooting at him and his crew of bounty hunters.
“Now if someone’s in a house and they start firing at us then we call Big Brother and they send the SWAT and the dogs and get the guy,” the bounty hunter said. “But I don’t check in with the police officers or the government to tell them what I’m doing and again they don’t check in with me to tell me what they’re doing.”
However, an email from Mr Chapman's team suggested that a plainclothes police officer was embedded with his search team on Thursday, and that he has passed along some tips to the FBI, suggesting he may have exaggerated the distance between his operation and the ongoing law enforcement efforts.
Mr Chapman claims he has been “getting tips like crazy”, but said only 20 per cent seemed “solid”.
Earlier this week, one of those tips proved fruitful; Mr Chapman said he received information suggesting the Laundrie family visited a camp ground at Fort DeSoto in Pinellas County, Florida.
Reporters later confirmed through the Pinellas County Parks Department that Roberta Laundrie, Mr Laundrie's mother, had checked into a campground there on 6 September and left on 8 September. Mr Laundrie returned home from his road trip without Ms Petito on 1 September. Ms Petito was then reported missing on 11 September.
After reporters confirmed that Ms Laundrie had been at the campground, the family's lawyer, Steven Bertolino, confirmed that Mr Laundrie accompanied them on the camping trip.
Following Mr Chapman's tip, the FBI collected surveillance footage from cameras at the campground for review.
Mr Chapman and his family added $10,000 to the growing reward pot for information leading to Mr Laundrie's arrest, bringing the total reward for information leading to Mr Laundrie's arrest to around $180,000. All of those donations are from private entities and it is unclear how much would actually be paid out upon Mr Laundrie's arrest.