So Hines and a friend drove to a house in Port Orchard, Wash., on May 1, located two pigs on a farm and shot them with a rifle, he said. Only when Gray and Hines spoke a few minutes later, he said, did he realize he had taken a wrong turn during the short drive — a right instead of a left. He was at someone else’s house.
The pigs he killed weren’t meant for slaughter; Gray and her husband, Nathan, were raising them as pets.
The Grays alleged in a lawsuit filed Thursday that Hines, 29, and his friend “recklessly inflicted serious and severe emotional distress” on their family, and they’re requesting damages “representing the intrinsic value of Betty and Patty.” The complaint also lists the butcher shop Hines works for, Farmer George Meats, and his friend, Dillon Baker, as defendants.
An incident report by the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office said that there was no “maliciousness” in Hines’s actions and that he didn’t intend to shoot the Grays’ pigs.
Nonetheless, the incident left the Grays — and Hines — devastated.
“Coming around the corner and seeing these animals that are supposed to live out their lives with you … it was very emotional,” Natalie, 38, told The Post last month.
When Hines realized his mistake around that same time, he said, his “heart dropped.” He recalled apologizing to Gray.
“I didn’t know what to do,” Hines said. “I was just kind of sitting there in shock.”
Joseph Keehn, who runs Farmer George Meats with his wife, said he also apologized to the Grays, calling the incident “a perfect storm of a mistake” but saying there was “no maliciousness.”
Baker, 30, said he didn’t shoot the pigs, a report Hines also made. The sheriff’s office report didn’t list Baker as a suspect and said he was there only to “assist” Hines.
Hines, Keehn and Baker spoke with The Post in mid-May. Reached after the lawsuit was filed, Hines said in a text message that he’s still employed by Farmer George Meats but didn’t comment further. Keehn and Baker didn’t respond to requests for further comment Sunday.
This isn’t the first time an animal has been killed after someone visited the wrong place. In Waco, Tex., last year, and in Faulkner County, Ark., in 2020, a law enforcement officer shot a dog after reporting to the wrong address. In February, a woman in Birmingham, Ala., told WBRC that a delivery truck driver who had “no reason” to be on her property shot her dog.
Natalie and Nathan have run a seven-acre farm for nearly a decade but use it only to raise pets. They have dogs, cats, ducks and chickens, and when Natalie saw a picture of two Kunekune piglets a local breeder posted on social media in 2022, she wanted them, too.
Natalie said she and her daughters liked tickling Betty and Patty’s bellies until they rolled onto their sides. Natalie sang them “You Are My Sunshine” and fed the piglet sisters sweets for their birthdays on Jan. 3 — Betty and Patty loved when Natalie sprayed whipped cream into their mouths, she said.
Every morning before taking her 12- and 9-year-old daughters to school, Natalie said she visited Betty and Patty, rubbing them and feeding them. After she returned home in the afternoon, Betty and Patty would squeal in excitement when they heard Natalie’s voice.
Nathan said he left the house’s gate open on May 1 while he ran an errand. About 30 minutes later, he said, his home’s security system sent him a phone alert that showed a white box truck on his property. Natalie said she saw in the footage someone near the pigs’ pen, which they shared with eight ducks.
Natalie said she rushed home from the nearby elementary school where she works.
“Who are you?” she recalled asking Hines, who said he initially thought her question was a joke.
After Natalie saw that Betty and Patty had been killed, she called 911 around 1:30 p.m. “I was sick to my stomach,” Natalie said.
Kunekune pigs usually live between 15 and 20 years, according to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. Betty and Patty were both 2 years old when they died.
When a sheriff’s deputy arrived later that afternoon, Hines told him that he didn’t put the correct address into his GPS system and didn’t verify the address when he arrived, according to the office’s incident report.
The Grays list their street number on their house, mailbox and gate, according to their lawsuit, which was filed in Washington Superior Court in Kitsap County. Hines said that if the Grays had closed their gate, he wouldn’t have mistaken the house.
Nathan asked Hines to clean up the scene. Hines said he and Baker dragged both pigs, which each weighed about 400 pounds, on a tarp to the woods behind the Grays’ house and shoveled the dirt covered in blood into a garage bin. Hines said they then left to slaughter the two pigs he was meant to kill across the street.
Before he left, Hines said, he offered to butcher the pigs for free, which the Grays declined.
When Natalie and Nathan told their daughters after school that Betty and Patty were dead, the kids stood in shock for a few seconds, Natalie said, before the group hugged. Then, their 12-year-old ran to her room and cried.
Nathan, who owns a construction company, said he used his excavator that afternoon to bury Betty and Patty in their backyard.
The reality of Betty and Patty’s deaths set in the next morning, when Natalie fed her other animals but skipped the pigs’ food. Since May 1, Nathan said, their 9-year-old has been scared to leave the family’s animals outside in fear that someone will kill them. Their daughters designed a makeshift gravestone they placed above where Betty and Patty were buried.
Natalie said she distracts herself from the pain of losing Betty and Patty with work. But she said her friend recently bought her a necklace designed with a flying pig — a memento that brought her grief rushing back.
“It gets easier to manage,” Natalie said about her pain. “But it’s always going to be there when you lose someone you love.”
