Police: Man Planned To Steal Bus, Pick Up Customers, Keep Fares

A Pennsylvania man apparently thought he had come up with the perfect scheme to put some cash in his pocket:

Steal a bus. Pick up customers. Keep the fares.

It didn’t quite work out that way.

Hoboken police arrested Charles Brown, 51, of Old Forge, Pa., on Sunday evening after he ran from a bus lot when he was confronted by a security guard, according to the police report.

The guard told police that Brown had come into the lot dressed in what looked like a bus driver’s uniform, yelling to the guard that he “would call dispatch to tell them which bus he was taking.”

Brown left the lot, then returned shortly afterward, the guard told police. When the guard went to check on him, he said he found Brown in the driver’s seat of a bus with the engine running. When the guard asked for identification, Brown ran, he told police.

Police found Brown in the area of 16th and Adams streets, they said.

Police said Brown admitted going into the lot planning to steal the bus as well as any other valuables he could find in the lot.