School Bus Stolen, Recovered In Kensington
By Elizabeth Hur
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - They got behind the wheel and took off.
Philadelphia police are now looking for three teenagers who went on a joyride in a school bus.
It's a story that has many scratching their heads and the bus driver's family just baffled. The bus driver told Eyewitness News she left the bus parked outside her house while she and her family attended a funeral. When they returned home, the bus was gone.
Malika Hunter said, "We start driving around like around this area looking for the bus to see if we could locate the bus."
They could not, but police did recover the bus at the corner of Sergeant and Jasper Streets in Kensington. It's about a 10 minute drive from the lot where Hunter's mother, the bus driver, parked the bus.
"My mom had the keys on her. They hot-wired the bus," Hunter said.
Eyewitnesses later told police they saw three black teenage boys jump out of the bus and run away. It happened when they couldn't maneuver a turn onto Sergeant Street. Eyewitnesses initially thought the boys were getting dropped off but when the bus just sat in the middle of the intersection, that's when they realized something was off.
Hunter added, "I'm in shock because I never thought nobody would steal a school bus. What would you get out of taking a school bus?"
That's a question police will ask when they track down whoever did this. Most are grateful no one got hurt but the Hunter family isn't ready to forgive just yet.
"You're interfering with somebody's life. Y'all saw it as a joyride but that's somebody's way of living. What they did, we do not appreciate it at all and I hope they really do find who did this," Hunter added.
The bus belonged to a private charter bus company, A1.
Fortunately, no one was on board when the teens were behind the wheel.
