NORTHAMPTON – Police arrested a 48-year-old Florence woman Monday after she allegedly broke into a Massasoit Street residence Christmas night and brandished a gun at the home owners.
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Nancy Gehrung, of 56 Matthew Drive, Florence, was in the process of stealing items from the house when the residents arrived home, police said.
Gehrung allegedly pointed a .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun at one of the residents and then fled out of the rear of the house.
Detective Corey Robinson said police arrested Gehrung on Monday morning and charged her with armed assault in a dwelling with a firearm, possession of a large-capacity firearm without a license, possession of ammunition without a firearm identification card, receiving a stolen firearm and larceny from a building. Gehrung was being held on $10,000 bail and is scheduled to be arraigned today in Northampton District Court, Robinson said.
Robinson said police received a report at 8:19 p.m. Sunday from the residents of 73 Massasoit St., who told police they had just found a woman inside the house. The home is owned by physician David E. Katz and Kathleen Mellen, an editor at the Daily Hampshire Gazette.
In an interview Monday, Mellen said the intruder had taken a gym bag, shoe polish, gorilla mask and $100 bill. The family had been out at a movie at the time, she said, noting that their return home seemed to startle the thief.
Mellen, her daughter, Gretchen Garnett, and son-in-law, Erik Garnett, had been the first to return home. The three came in by the back door and were about to turn the lights on when they discovered someone in their house.
“I heard a rustle behind the Christmas tree and saw someone standing there,” Mellen said. “I was trying to make it into someone I knew, but it wasn’t. I heard my son-in-law say ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa.’ That was when I heard the word gun.”
Mellen and her daughter bolted from the house and ran across the street to the home of Ward 4 City Councilor Paul Spector, from where they called police.
“When I ran from the house I was terrified I would hear gunshots,” Mellen said.
In the end, there were none.
Garnett remained inside the home. When he saw the intruder she raised the gun and pointed it at him, Garnett said. She silently walked toward him, gun raised, before escaping out the back door.
“She seemed calm. She seemed like she really wanted to get out of there,” Garnett said.
“I was thinking, ‘Wow this is really happening. Someone is really pointing a gun at me,'” Garnett said. He estimated the whole interaction took place within a span of 30 seconds.
Police arrived on the scene shortly thereafter. In conducting a search of the area they found items that appeared to have been discarded by the woman, as well as a vehicle parked near the house that was later determined to belong to the suspect’s parents, Robinson said.
State police and a dog unit assisted in the search for the woman. Robinson declined to say where Gehrung was apprehended.
In a separate interview, Detective Patrick Moody said the incident appeared “random.” In an interview with police, Gehrung told investigators that she needed money, he said.
Mellen said the family had been aided by a family friend, Deb Foley, a former state trooper and private investigator. While speaking with police at the scene, Foley noticed a woman with grass stains on her pants walking by without a coat and hat, which struck her as odd on a cold night. The woman offered a “Merry Christmas” to the group and continued on her way, Mellen said, relating the story. Foley recommended to police that they consider interviewing the woman, which they subsequently did, Mellen said.
Garnett was later brought to the station to identify Gehrung as the intruder. He said he could not be completely sure that she was the woman in the home – her clothes were different and he had difficulty seeing her in the dark of the house – but she fit the general profile of the thief.
Mellen said police recovered items from her house in Gehrung’s possession, and police told her that Gehrung admitted to stealing the items from the home.
Ultimately, Mellen said the family was thankful for the police response and that nothing worse occurred.
“The police did a great job,” she said. “They really came through.”
