Bus Company Leaves Boy Scouts Stranded
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FRISCO (CBSDFW.COM) - The boy scouts of Troop 216 of Frisco were all ready to go on their big overnight trip.
"I was just so pumped to go," said boy scout Jedidiah Henderson.
"Some of my friends were moving away so it was the last time I was ever going to see them for a long time," said another boy scout named Jake Hernandez.
Xpressbus out of Dallas was supposed to take 42 scouts and 13 adults to the USS Lexington in Corpus Christie.
"The chance to sleep on an aircraft carrier, what kid wouldn't want to," asked scoutmaster Scott Riegler.
The troop and their parents waited nearly four hours in a church parking lot but the bus never showed.
"I must have called 20 times," said Riegler.
"I was like, well, what about the trip," said boy scout Colin McBride.
Riegler paid $2500 and booked the bus through a broker he used before.
The broker acted as a middle man between the group and the bus company.
"He even put some money down to hold it because we didn't have our funds gathered up for the trip," said Riegler.
The broker then paid Chris Davis of Xpressbus to take the boy scouts on their trip.
The broker told CBS11 Davis didn't show up for several group trips.
"He owes me $7800," said the broker.
The broker said he would only talk if we didn't identify him on camera because he was concerned about his safety.
"Yes-he's retired police officer, in the secret service, has all these military accolades. I'm scared to a point for me and my family obviously," said the broker.
Xpressbus complaints on the Dallas BBB site or Yelp complain of similar things.
Youth groups or athletic teams paid him hundreds or thousands for a trip--the bus never shows up.
All of the Xpressbus complaints on the Dallas BBB are unanswered
"They were kind of just left hanging because he ran off with the money," said the broker.
The Texas DMV regulates bus companies.
You can look up a companies certificate, insurance and owner here on the state website.
You can also look up complaints and if any action was taken against a bus company by the state.
CBS11 found Xpressbus cannot operate in Texas.
The certificate of operation expired last June--four months before the boy scout trip.
CBS11 found the state penalized Davis a total of three times over insurance issues.
Davis has not returned our request for a comment.
"Honestly if he needed the money that bad, we might have done something to help him. That's just kind of what scouts do," said Riegler.
The USS Lexington has agreed to hold the scouts reservation but they still need a bus to get there.
"What I really want to say is bring us our bus and give us our money back," said Riegler.