Saturday, April 4, 2009

Thought I Was Going to be in Speed 3




First call came as a school bus driving erratically on the freeway. Everyday we get reckless driver calls but first time I've heard of a school bus being called on. At first I wasn't going to bother with it, the other units could check it (the bus would have been gone by then anyhow). Then the whole situation turns upside down. Another officer got flagged down by a woman whose daughter calls saying her school bus has been hijacked and kids were jumping off. Okay, now I'm getting involved even though I'm miles away. I try making my way through Friday rush hour traffic to the freeway. Then we get information that another agency has the bus stopped. We call that agency and they have no clue what we're talking about. We then call the school district who operates the bus and thankfully they have a GPS tracker on it and it's still on the freeway about to enter into the next county. Actually, the bus is heading to my home neighborhood. So I need no map now, I just need people to get out of my way. Running emergency traffic through Friday rush hour traffic is a bitch! I have to resist the urge to get on my PA speaker and shout things like "do I look like I'm driving a mother f****** ice cream truck!" Or, "get the hell out of my way!" Shortly before I arrive the school district police arrive and the bus is stopped in a parking lot of the grocery store I regularly shop at! I can imagine the reaction of the shoppers to have about 20 police cars flying into the parking lot around a school bus. I get out and the kids are shouting and jumping up and down. We quickly learn the bus wasn't hijacked however we're being told that the bus driver was acting, and driving crazy. Parents then start showing up so I start reassuring them their child is okay, the bus wasn't hijacked but we're still trying to sort out the mess and find out what happened. This calms all the parents except one and I could tell from her posture she was going to be a problem. She refused to listen to me and walked off. The ISD Sergeant I recognized from in-service classes so the inter-agency cooperation is going to be easy. I help him out since this is his scene. We later learn that the man who called them told his daughter to tell police that the bus was hijacked. I sure hope they charge him with false report. I know we would have. I then left, my task was done. I'll have to call that Sergeant and get the exciting conclusion.

2 comments:

Kelsey said...

Wow. Crazy!

Anonymous said...

Oh man, false reporting is the ultimate revenge for the dispatcher. Go get 'em!!!!