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Woman Walks Through Unlocked Door, Terrorizes Couple With Gun

PLACER COUNTY (CBS13) — Placer County sheriff's deputies arrested a woman Friday evening after she reportedly walked into a couple's home, lied down on the living room floor, and then pulled out a gun.

Deputies said getting the unwelcome guest to leave was not an easy task.

"I think she's lucky she didn't go to the wrong place and get herself killed or shot," Fred Carey said.

Meghan Gantz is the talk of the Alta neighborhood. Around 11 p.m. Friday, she wandered up and down Culberson Road, knocking on doors, eventually walking through the unlocked door of a home and laying down on the living room floor as a couple watching TV.

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Lt. Andrew Scott said Gantz "started acting odd, [and] appeared to be drunk or high. They didn't know who she was and didn't invite her to the house."

The couple pushed Gantz outside, but she returned and pulled a gun from her jacket. Deputies said the homeowner wrestled the gun away, but she returned once more, grabbing the woman by the throat and choking her.

Neighbors said Gantz made other stops that night.

"We hear the door rattling like this, it was locked, so I cracked it open a little bit and there's this drunken lady on my front porch trying to get in," Melissa McRill said.

Deputies were called to the incident down the road and found Gantz circling the house, threatening to kill the occupants. She then tried to grab the deputies' duty belt while refusing to leave quietly.

"When they got her into the patrol car, she tried to kick out the windows of that patrol car," Scott said.

Neighbors in the unincorporated community of Placer County don't necessarily roll out the welcome mat to strangers, especially when they make house calls unannounced.

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"People up here, they come into your house waving a gun, they're liable to get guns waved back at 'em," Fred Carey said.

"It's my self-protection. I'd shoot first and ask questions later," Drew Armfield said.

The young couple who had the run-in with Gantz told CBS13 they won't be pressing charges, but police charged Gantz with burglary and felony firearms violations. Lt. Scott said she also had some terrorist threats charges against her and the gun she had turned out to be stolen.

Gantz is being held at the Auburn Jail and is not eligible for bail.

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