The bus stopped briefly, and the driver hopped off for a short break. The 10 or so passengers checked their watches, yawned, stared into space.
The driver got back on, and the articulated bus proceeded on its route. But the man now behind the wheel wasn’t the same driver. He wasn’t even a bus driver. He was just some guy.
This potentially catastrophic scenario, which unfolded in Hamilton, Ontario, on Tuesday night, ended happily, because it turned out that the hijacker was a pretty decent bus driver.
He made regular stops to pick up passengers, the police reported. At one point someone tried to board with an expired bus pass. No dice: The driver insisted they pay with coins.
The driver did make some wrong turns, which clued in some of the passengers. “He took the bus off route,” said Trevor McKenna, a spokesman for the Hamilton Police Service. “He started going down side streets. At one point, one of the passengers had to supply directions.”
The police became aware of the situation and began following the bus. “We didn’t know if there was some ill will,” Constable McKenna said. “That’s why we chose to take it slow.”
When the bus came to a stop, the police acted. The rogue driver, 36, was arrested and charged with theft, obstruction and other offenses. He was not identified, Constable McKenna said, because “there could be a mental health component” to what happened. The man was said by the police to have “no fixed address.”
The entire escapade covered four miles and lasted about 15 minutes.
Nobody was injured. “He was playing by the rules,” Constable McKenna said. “I guess you could say he was a good sport.”
To New Yorkers old enough to remember the 1990s, the incident is reminiscent of the day when a 16-year-old train enthusiast, Keron Thomas, successfully drove an A train from 207th street to Lefferts Boulevard and almost all the way back.
More recently, three masked civilians took an empty R train for a joyride in January. In a modern twist, they uploaded footage to Instagram.
For Constable McKenna, the Hamilton incident most reminded him of a different New York City caper: “In Seinfeld, when Kramer drove the bus.” Though Kramer was simultaneously fighting off an armed assailant and rushing a severed toe to the hospital, he too kept making the stops. Why? “People kept ringing the bell,” he said.
Victor Mather, who has been a reporter and editor at The Times for 25 years, covers sports and breaking news.
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