The AR-15 assault rifle found by police in Hamilton today after a panicked woman tried to hide it when she saw police in her street. Photo / NZ Police
The AR-15 assault rifle found by police in Hamilton today after a panicked woman tried to hide it when she saw police in her street. Photo / NZ Police
A woman who panicked when she saw police doorknocking in her street has been caught trying to hide the same kind of rifle used by Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock.
The semi-automatic AR-15 assault rifle, worth upwards of $1400, was found in a case and wrapped in clothing behind agarage in Hamilton this morning after police were tipped off to the woman's strange behaviour.
In October Paddock used an AR-15 to shoot at people gathered at a concert in Las Vegas, killing 58 and wounding hundreds from a window of the Mandalay Bay hotel.
At 9am today police were executing a search for a wanted person in Odette St when the woman fled her house and jumped a fence into a neighbouring property.
Hamilton Police Senior Sergeant Simon Cherry said the 21-year-old woman was not initially the subject of the police search but when she ran into a neighbour's backyard carrying the "package" the neighbour rang police.
"It's strictly by coincidence that this has transpired. She jumped over her own fence into someone else's backyard which looked suspicious for the person who was in that house."
Police promptly found the woman in the Bader suburb but the package was missing.
"A subsequent search of the area found that rifle. She had tried to stash it behind a garage."
