Man steals city bus and takes it on perfectly civil joyride, picking up and dropping off passengers

A man who stole an idling city bus in Hamilton took passengers on a nighttime joyride through the city — making stops, letting riders on and off, and even made someone with an expired bus pass put money in the fare box, police said.

A potentially devastating alarm came to Hamilton Police from the city’s transit operator, Hamilton Street Railway, at 9 p.m., Tuesday: A man had climbed behind the wheel of a city bus after the driver stepped out for a short break.

With about 10 passengers on board, the man pulled the bus out of the McNab Street Bus Terminal in the heart of downtown and onto the city’s dark, snowy streets.

Police officers responded quickly but initially stayed discreetly back, Const. Trevor McKenna said.

“We typically would pursue something like this, but because of this situation, for safety purposes, we strategically followed, which means that there were no lights or sirens. We kept our distance and we just kind of monitored where they were going,” he said.

“We didn’t want to spook him and make him do something suddenly or lose focus on what he was doing. He’s driving a full-size bus on our roads, pedestrians are out, it’s dark. We’re getting into the wintry weather.”

Busses have GPS trackers on board and HSR officials knew where the bus was and could guess which way it might go.

Officers were amazed at what happened next.

The driver didn’t roar off or speed recklessly. There wasn’t a rampage or injuries. Rather, he drove reasonably.

For a few minutes, everything seemed normal on board and passengers didn’t seem to notice, McKenna said.

“He was following the rules of the road. He was making the scheduled stops along the way and letting people come and go. It’s not like he was threatening in nature or holding them there.

“It was when the bus started going off the designated route — it was his own personalized route, he was going down side streets — some passengers noticed. Once they noticed that, they engaged in a conversation with him. One witness was saying that they were giving him directions.

“But when he did come to (bus) stops, he would make the stop, open the door and let people on or off. And he stopped somebody who was looking to use a Presto card that was expired. He actually charged them money and made them put it in the machine and they got on for their ride.”

The man drove the bus up the Hamilton Mountain and after about 15 minutes police moved in, on West 5th Street near Gateview Drive.

“He was confronted. We told him to exit the vehicle. He declined. So then our officers did have to go in and physically remove him,” said McKenna.

He wasn’t wearing an HSR uniform. Police don’t know if he had previous driving experience.

A 36-year-old man of no fixed address was arrested and charged with theft, possession of stolen property, obstruct police and drive while prohibited.

“Ultimately, there were no collisions, there were no injuries, not even a dent,” McKenna said.

There are also, so far, no answers to why.

“It comes across as more of like a joyride. He got on, whether he was on the influence of a drug or if it’s mental health, that I can’t answer, but it’s not like he was trying to impress anyone or filming himself or had somewhere to be. He just kind of took it for a joyride and ended in that location, and that’s where he was arrested,” McKenna said.

“Sometimes things happen with no rhyme or reason.”

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