A Gray couple were awoken at 2 a.m. Wednesday when a woman they did not know turned on their bedroom light and asked if anyone wanted to play, authorities said. Charity Hatch, 32, of New Gloucester was charged with criminal mischief in connection with the incident, according to the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office.
The couple told deputies that the woman left after she made her offer, but a few minutes later they heard a knock at the door of their North Raymond Road house. When they rose, they found Hatch, who seemed angry and intoxicated, already in their home and refusing to leave, the sheriff’s office said. Hatch was demanding to see another woman who had been saying bad things about her, the sheriff’s office said. The residents did know the other woman and knew she didn’t live there. The homeowner grabbed his shotgun and told the woman to leave. She refused, and the man grabbed her and pushed her out the front door while his partner called police.
Deputies found Hatch face down in the grass near a tree attempting to hide, the sheriff’s office said. She was arrested on the misdemeanor charge of criminal mischief. Hatch told deputies she had knocked on the door and was met with a shotgun in the face, the sheriff’s office said.
While there is a good degree of humor to be gleaned from this article, the lesson here is that alcohol and drugs, taken in excess, generally lead to bad things… like criminal charges. Frankly, this woman is lucky that all she did was get arrested and charged with a misdemeanor. Under the worst case scenario, she could have been gunned down by the homeowner when he realized she was in his house. Under another scenario, she could have been charged with burglary, which is a felony charge here in Maine.
