Authorities in New Zealand confiscated a fake gun from a woman who was allegedly having an affair with Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock before the 2017 massacre, the New Zealand Herald reports.
The woman, whose identity has not been released, is living in Auckland and had been carrying a phony pistol until police seized it this week.
The mistress had displayed the fake firearm to a Herald reporter at a shopping mall, claiming it was real and that she was using it for her own protection.
“I have a permit to conceal and carry it with me,” she told the reporter.
The newspaper later alerted police, who went to the woman’s home on Friday.
“Inquiries were made this evening and a replica pistol was located and it has been surrendered to police for destruction,” authorities told the Herald. “A female has been warned for unlawfully carrying an imitation firearm.”
According to the newspaper, the woman fled the United States with her son after the October 2017 mass shooting. She first went to Australia before moving to New Zealand and is a citizen of both the United States and Australia.
“I have been living here a while but I didn’t want anyone to know,” the woman told the newspaper. “The investigation is still ongoing in the States. I still live with a lot of guilt knowing I could have potentially prevented it so as a result, I have a lot of people who want me dead for failing to do something.”
Investigators have not suggested that she knew what Paddock was planning or that she played any role in the attack.
The Daily Mail reported this week that Paddock sent the woman text messages days before the massacre.
Paddock wrote, “I need to talk to you. Please. Call me when you get this, it’ll be good to hear your voice. I need someone to talk to.”
In another exchange, Paddock wrote that he was “struggling a bit” and added: “There are so many people who don’t deserve to be alive.”
The woman told the Daily Mail that she offered to come to Las Vegas to meet Paddock, but he said that was not necessary.
In 2013, the woman, who is in her 20s, met a 60-year-old Paddock in a Miami bar after she had ended a relationship with a boyfriend.
“I started hanging out with Stephen as we both had a passion for guns,” the woman told the Daily Mail.
The two kept in touch and would meet at times for sex, despite Paddock having a long-term girlfriend, Marilou Danley.
“We only hooked up enough times I could count on one hand,” the woman said. “I turned into his therapist more than anything.”
“Being called his ‘mistress’ is a stretch. I think he saw hookers the way women see hairdressers, they kind of double up as therapists. I am not critical of hookers but there were always fights about that and texts of him being paranoid about what I was doing.”
Paddock killed 58 people and injured hundreds more. Paddock was later found dead in a hotel room.
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[Feature Photo: Police Handout]
