When it comes to ChristmastšÆime joyrides, this may be second š only to stealing Santaās sleigh.
A brazen bandit swiped an empty MTA bus in the Bronx last ą¹weekend ā and took it all the wayš¦ to Queens on an hours-long adventure before leaving it just blocks from where it was originally swiped.
No one was aboard bus No. 1010 wheź¦¬n it was taken a little before 8 p.m. Sunday, as it was being used as a shelter for off-duty bus operators at Bruckner Boulevard and Hunts Point Avenue in Longwood, police said.
It wasnāt clear when MTA officials discovered the bus was missing, but they didnāt locate it until 4 a.m., when they checked ź§its location on GPS, according to law enforcement sources.
They found that the vehicle had been taken all the way što Queens and then parked bacš»k in the Bronx at Westchester and Prospect avenues ā roughly half a mile from where it was stolen, cops said.
āI heard about this and I thought that was a joke,ā a bus driver hanging out at the intersection where the bus went missing told The Post. āYouāve got to have some balls to steal a big-ass bus and drive it all the way the f–k to Queens.
āThe problem is, you have a lot āof people who have a fantasy about driving a city bus, and when you leave a bus out there in the open with no one inside, youāre at risk of someone stealing it.ā
The thiefās joź©µb was made all theā¤ easier because city buses donāt require keys to start, according to the driver.
āTheyāre push-start buses,ā he said. āYou donāt even need a keyless fob. Anyone can just āclimb into a bus and push the button and drive wherever the hell they want. Itās a big problem.ā
Sundayās bus-napping is an echo of the infamous antics of transit bandit Darius McCollum ā the š®53-year-old man with Aspergerās syndrome who has been arrested at least 30 times since he was 15 for illegally driving Big Apple trains and bš„uses.
He copped a pšlea deal in 2016 ā a year after he was arrested for snagging a Greyhound bus from the Port Authority Bus Terminal and taking its passengers š§to their destination in Pennsylvania.
A judge deemed his love Ü«of transit a ādangerous mental disorderā and indefinitely committed him to a psych ward.
The NYPD is investigating Sundayās incident.
The MTA declined to comment and instead referred quesātions to the police.
Additional reporting by Max Jaeger