A celebrated Ground Zero volunteer who claims that his dog “made the only live finds” at the site is being investigated over $16,000 FEMA gave him to live in a Battery Park City high-rise, The Post has learned.
Scott Shields, who resided in Greenwich, Conn., in 2001, didn’t move downtown until six months after 9/11, and then got evicted from his $3,182-a-month apartment, records show.
The former dressmaker – who calls himself “captain” yet holds no military or police rank – is also being quizzed by the Parks Department for trying to pass himself off as a Parks officer in Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath, the department said.
He and his dog Bear didn’t find any 9/11 survivors, says the co-author of his memoirs, Nancy West, and primatologist Jane Goodall has asked that her blurb be taken off its future printings.
It’s unclear what happened to the $16,443.50 FEMA gave Shields on Nov. 19, 2002 for “temporary housing” at luxe building 225 Rector Place.
According to eviction papers, he was booted from the pad in 2003 because he owed more than $27,000 in rent.
Ann Croke, who manages the building, says Homeland Security investigators interviewed her about the matter about four months ago.
Shields has claimed in various media that Bear made “the only live finds” at Ground Zero.
Four months before 9/11, he filed for bankruptcy.
Shields’ memoirs, “Bear: Heart of a Hero,” self-published in 2003, tells how he drove to Ground Zero on 9/11 with his golden retriever, who later died of cancer.