Terrifying Chaos Ensues After Intruder Awakens Elderly Peninsula Homeowner

Palo Alto police on Tuesday morning responded to an urgent call from an elderly resident on Hamilton Avenue who said she was being threatened by a wig-wearing, knife-wielding woman who stood outside a window flaunting the fact that she was holding the homeowner’s house key.

The victim, a woman in her 80s, had awakened to find standing in her bedroom an unfamiliar woman who was demanding the keys to the victim’s vehicle. The elderly resident ran downstairs and hid, heard the intruder exit the home’s back door, and then shut the door and locked the suspect outside, according to the Palo Alto Police Department.

Through the back door window, however, the suspect displayed a key to the residence, brandished a large knife and threatened to harm the victim if she did not turn over her car keys, police said.

The woman called 911, moved to another portion of the home and heard the intruder open the back door and re-enter, police said.

Police arrived shortly after 7:50 a.m., and the elderly woman ran outside and met responding officers.

Officers surrounded the home and, within minutes, the suspect, 55-year-old Jennifer Louise Gause of East Palo Alto, emerged from a side gate and was arrested, police said.

Gause, according to authorities, was carrying miscellaneous personal items belonging to the resident, including a 14-inch ceremonial dagger.

Police determined that Gause and the homeowner shared a mutual acquaintance, which possibly explained how the suspect knew the location of a hide-a-key used to enter the home, the department said.

The victim was not injured during the incident, police said.

Gause was booked into the Santa Clara County Main Jail for felony counts of suspected burglary, robbery, and one misdemeanor count of suspicion of brandishing a weapon.

Anyone with information about this incident can call the 24-hour dispatch center at 650-329-2413. Anonymous tips can be e-mailed topaloalto@tipnow.org or sent via text message or voice mail to 650-383-8984. Tips can also be submitted anonymously through the free mobile app, downloadable at bit.ly/PAPD-AppStore or bit.ly/PAPD-GooglePlay.