Operation Freedom Firearms in Muncy Creek Township was damaged again in an attempted burglary involving a stolen vehicle . KAREN VIBERT-KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette

MUNCY – Army veteran and business owner Matt Hiller said burglars once again tried to get into his store, Operation Freedom Firearms in Muncy Creek Township early Sunday morning; this time by ramming the back of a blue stolen Hyundai Elantra into the front of the building.

They did not get it, but they caused at least $5,000 damage to the structure, Hiller said. He just opened the gun shop at 50 Angletown Road in September 2024.

Just a little more than three months after he started the business, a group of teenagers rammed the front of the building with a stolen car on Christmas morning, grabbed six handguns from inside the building and headed to Muncy, where they stole another vehicle.

“Two adults and four juveniles were arrested,” he said Monday afternoon.

His surveillance system recorded four passengers getting out of the Elantra, and the driver ramming the back of the car into his property about 3:30 a.m. Unable to get in, all five then sped off, he said.

The Elantra, according to Hiller, was the same car state troopers were pursuing about an hour later on East Third Street in Loyalsock Township after they noticed a broken taillight

The pursuit ended when the car crashed into a home at Washington Boulevard and Grove Street in the city with all five occupants fleeing the scene on foot, state police said.

“There were pieces of the broken tail light” outside his gunshop, Hiller said.

The Sun-Gazette has learned that a second gun shop in Muncy Creek Township was broken into overnight Sunday.

“At least several firearms were stolen. I have not yet done a full inventory,” John DeWald, owner of the Northeast Trade Company at 1980 John Brady Drive, said Monday afternoon.

“The state police were here all morning (collecting evidence and processing the scene),” he said.

The intruders apparently broke in by smashing out a front window with a heavy piece of cinderblock, DeWald said.

“I hope the police get the guys who did this,” he added.

As for Hiller, he is nearly at his wit’s end.

“One more break-in, and I will simply lock it up and walk away. I can’t keep having this,” Hiller said.

Just about a month ago, trespassers on the property tampered with his security system.

“I’m a combat vet, and I’m losing more sleep over this” than anything else he has ever faced in his life, he said.

“It’s insanity,” Hiller said. He believes that there is a very strong likelihood that the same juveniles arrested for the 2024 break-in at his business were involved in Sunday’s crime.

“Our courts need to prosecute these juveniles to the fullest extent of the law. These juveniles need to be held responsible,” he added.

No arrests have been made in these two most recent crimes involving Muncy area gunshops.

Efforts to get any details from police on these incidents has so far been unsuccessfuL.