Earlier this week we told you the story of a former New York firefighter who said someone stole the gear he wore at ground zero on 9-11.
After the story got national attention other firefighters started calling us questioning the man's story.
NewsChannel 3 spent the past few days investigating the claims and we've uncovered new developments.
Jon Wright made a plea to the community asking for the return of his most prized possession: the gear he said he wore at the World Trade Center site on September 11.
"Right smack in the middle. I was neck deep in it; you couldn't get any closer than I was," Wright said. "We had guys covering the firehouses. Some of us were at ground zero."
It wasn't long before Jon got his gear back, it being turned in by a Good Samaritan.
His story so moving, the thought of thieves taking his gear so troubling, our story made national news. After that it wasn't long before volumes of angry calls and e-mails came flooding in to NewsChannel 3. Most of them were from firefighters, all of them saying the same thing: the story Wright was spinning was wrong.
Chief Paul Russer from the Freeport, N.Y. fire department said, "There was witnesses that have him in the fire house. So there is no way that he was neck deep at ground zero."
Several fire fighters say Wright exaggerates his role in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks to paint himself as a hero and pedal his book all over the country -- a book he paid to have published.
The New York City deputy fire commissioner says that's why she had Wright and another man removed from a fire chief convention in Denver. Deputy Commissioner Lynn Tierney said, "The indignity of this fellow promoting himself under a quilt dedicated to those who were lost in 9-11 was very incongruous with the purpose of the expo."
So what's the deal with the book?
"I don't want to talk about the book. I told you this gear has nothing to do with that book. That's it. This interview is over," Wright said.
But the issue is not over for Freeport firefighters who say Wright is wrong to even have the gear he says was stolen. They say it should have been given back to the department and new gear issued.
Giving him the benefit of the doubt we dug deeper, and it turns out this is not the first time Wright's integrity and honesty have been called into question.
Sallie Lloyd said she was scammed by Wright.
"He's a scoundrel and a thief," Lloyd told ABC as a part of the networks investigation into unlicensed contractors ripping people off in New York City.
The DA's office in Nassau County, N.Y. has a warning about Wright on their web site and folks we talked to have a warning for the people of Wilmington: be very wary of the stories Mr. Wright is telling.
It is important to point out that no one questions Jon Wright's service as a firefighter. What is in question is whether Wright served at ground zero immediately following the 9-11 attacks.
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