Woman’s Tale of Robbery a Lie, Police Say

Police arrested a 28-year-old woman Thursday for allegedly shooting and stabbing herself and then concocting a story that included two masked men invading her home, trying to murder her and threatening to kidnap her children.

“The evidence we found at the scene, along with our investigation, does not match her version of events,” said Ventura Police Lt. Don Arth.

Windy Lopez of Ventura was booked into County Jail on suspicion of filing a false police report. She also was booked on suspicion of insurance fraud and grand theft because she submitted an insurance claim after the purported home-invasion robbery, Arth said.

Investigators began to suspect Lopez when they looked into her background and discovered she had a history of reporting crimes that she had committed to authorities in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, Arth said.

They also found in her backyard what they believe is the .25-caliber semiautomatic handgun used in the incident. Lopez had said her supposed attackers brought the gun with them, but police say it’s hers.

On Dec. 3, Lopez called 911 in a panic, saying she was alone in her townhome in the 300 block of West Harrison Avenue and that she had just been attacked.

When officers arrived, they found her with a bullet wound in her stomach and multiple stab wounds to her face, chest, arms and legs. Her house was ransacked, some of her belongings were smashed and she said her jewelry had been stolen.

She also told police her attackers had threatened “to go to her children’s school and kill them,” Arth said. But no motive was discovered for the attack, and no one other than Lopez witnessed the alleged crime.

Investigators believe she staged the entire event and then collected from her insurance company, Arth said.

Lopez was arrested last September on suspicion of altering a prescription, but she claimed that her ex-husband, Lonnie Moreno, had forged the prescription, Arth said.

In October she filed a police report alleging that Moreno made terrorist threats against her in a letter. Investigators believe she wrote the letter, Arth said.

On Nov. 6 she accused Moreno of putting a dead rat in her post office box. Investigators believe she was responsible for the rat, Arth said.