Woman Charged After Firing Warning Shot at Thieves
Suspects Were Trying to Steal Her Classic Car
Oct. 5, 1999
By Pete Brush

GRESHAM, Ore. (APBnews.com) -- Radio talk shows in the Portland area were buzzing this morning about the news that a local woman who fired a warning shot into the air as several men were trying to steal her 1967 Mustang was charged with unlawful discharge of a firearm.

"I understand we're being accused of being mean and awful," Gresham police Lt. Carla Piluso said today. "But you need to know that [the thieves] weren't posing any physical threat."

The story began Monday just before midnight when Kassandra Bossert's son awoke to strange noises coming from outside their Gresham home. A police report says those noises sounded like someone trying to start -- or hot-wire -- a car. When Bossert looked out the window to investigate, she and her family members saw several suspects pushing their classic car down the street. Its engine was not running, but the thieves may have been trying to roll the car to where it could be started.

Husband refused to fire

According to police, Bossert told her husband to get a gun and fire on the suspects. But the husband refused. During this time, the Bosserts' son was calling 911, and police were coming to the scene. "The husband said, 'I'm not going to shoot anybody over stealing a car," Piluso said.

As police were arriving on the scene, however, Bossert allegedly decided to fire a warning shot. According to police, she pointed a handgun out the window and shot in the air in a westerly direction.

"The concern from a law enforcement standpoint is that you have to be accountable for where the bullets are flying," Piluso said. "We're not talking out in the country. We're talking in a populated area."

Suspects not found

Ironically, Piluso said, police cannot rule out the possibility that Bossert's warning shot scared off the thieves. When police arrived on the scene minutes after the 911 call, they found the abandoned car just a block away from the Bossert's Southwest Mawcrest home. Police sent a K-9 unit to the scene to track the suspects, but they were not found, Piluso said. Cops were also on the scene when a dispatcher told them that other residents in the area were reporting gunshots had been fired.

The maximum penalty Bossert faces for unlawful discharge of a firearm -- a class B misdemeanor -- is a $2,000 fine or six months in jail.

"You know that's not going to happen," Piluso said. "But that's the max." Phone calls to the Bossert residence were not returned today.

Pete Brush is an APBnews.com national correspondent.

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