What to Know
- A group of joyriders sneaked off with an empty New York City bus and took it on an hours-long adventure from the Bronx to Queens and back
- Police said the bus was stolen around 7:40 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 23 near the Crossings Mall in the Bronx; it was dumped 4 hours later, undamaged
- Cops say some of the individuals may be linked to the theft of another MTA bus, this one from a depot in Brooklyn, earlier the same day
Cops are looking for a half-dozen people they say sneaked off with an empty New York City bus and took it on an hours-long adventure from the Bronx to Queens and back about a week ago, and authorities say some may have been involved in taking another MTA bus earlier on the same day.
In the latest case, police say the six people -- two young women and four young men -- got on a bus that was parked on Hunts Point Avenue near the Crossings Mall in the Bronx just before 8 p.m. Dec. 23 and took it for a four-hour whirl between boroughs. They dumped it in front of a building on Prospect Avenue shortly before midnight.
Police say the MTA didn't report the bus stolen until after it was already found the next day. The vehicle wasn't damaged.
Cops are also looking into whether some of the people seen in surveillance images on the bus in the Bronx may have taken a different bus, this one from an MTA depot in Brooklyn, about eight hours before the second one was taken. Surveillance footage captured the two of the three people sought in that case in the front of the bus, which was also eventually recovered undamaged.
An MTA spokesperson said the matter was a police investigation and referred questions to the NYPD.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.
