Woman Accused Of Breaking Into Wash. Co. Home Arrested
CANTON TOWNSHIP (KDKA) - A woman from Washington County accused of breaking into a home in Canton Township, while the person who lived there was asleep on the couch, has been arrested.
Police say 40-year-old Melissa Bird allegedly broke into Matthew Longood's home on July 5.
She's also accused of trying to break into other homes in the area on the same day.
Longood says he saw a woman he recognized going through his dresser, but he did not know her name.
"I was sleeping on my chair because I had just cracked my ribs, so it was the only comfortable position I could sleep in," Longood said. "I was out in my living room and I woke up and she was in my living room going through the stuff I have here and I confronted her, tried to stop her."
He tackled the woman and tried to hold her down until police got there, but was unable.
He managed to take back a silver ring before the woman crawled out a bedroom window and ran away.
He said the woman appeared to be in distress.
Later that day, neighbors said they found a woman screaming and knocking on the door on their front porch. They said the woman's shirt was ripped and she had a head injury. They also said she was going door-to-door, knocking on the doors of other homes.
"The police told me she went down the street knocking on neighbors' doors, telling them I had raped her and stuff, so yeah, police actually came back to my house said they're going to charge me with rape," Longood said. "I said, what are you guys crazy? I found this lady in my house."
Bird was arrested over the weekend and charged her with burglary, attempted burglary, criminal mischief, loitering and public drunkenness.
She's being held in the Washington County jail on $10,000 bond.
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