A three-time convicted burglar is facing burglary charges again after a South Side homeowner allegedly caught him breaking into a garage and shot him in the leg.
Officers responding to a “burglary in progress” call around 2:45 a.m. on March 7 found 59-year-old Jose Pantoja lying in an alley behind the 5100 block of South Loomis Boulevard with a gunshot wound to his right leg.
A 40-year-old man who lives nearby told officers he heard someone breaking into his garage and found Pantoja wearing a mask and placing a socket wrench into a backpack. When Pantoja allegedly tried to flee, the homeowner, a valid concealed carry license holder, shot him in the leg, according to police and prosecutors.
Cops recovered Pantoja’s backpack, which contained a Dremel tool and a drill that the homeowner identified as his property, along with what a police report described as a “crowbar-like item” that he allegedly used to force open the garage…