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After two burglaries in six hours, homeowner fires warning shot

A homeowner fired a warning shot when he encountered a burglar trying to enter the kitchen of his Hillsboro home early Friday morning.

HILLSBORO, Ore. -- A homeowner fired a warning shot when he encountered a burglar trying to enter the kitchen of his Hillsboro home early Friday morning.

The suspect ran off into a wetland area. A search that included a K-9 unit was unable to find him.

The same home was burglarized about 8:30 Thursday night and a collector Mercedes was stolen. The suspect in the earlier burglary entered the home by breaking the glass in two rear doors.

The homeowner, Branko Loncar, covered the broken windows with plastic.

“I said if he comes back, I'm going to shoot the gentleman,” Loncar recalled telling police. “They said, ‘No, no, this doesn't happen. Why would somebody come back to the scene of the crime?’”

Then the next morning at about 3:20 a.m., police were called again to the home near Southeast 69th Avenue and Main Street.

The victim told police he heard noises at the back of the house. Because of what had happened the evening before, the homeowner grabbed a handgun.

As he walked into a kitchen area, he saw a white man trying to cut through the plastic covering a door window. He fired a warning shot and the man fled.

“You cannot let some ‘Joe Blow’ decide to eat in your house, have a party, take your classy car and then come back during the night— for what? Maybe he saw a picture of my wife, you know? So I had to deal with him," Loncar said.

A resident about four blocks away from the incident called police about 6 a.m. to report the car was parked nearby. It was there the evening before, with the top down. The resident, after watching the morning news, realized it was stolen.

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