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Bus fanatic, 20, with no licence posed as driver to steal buses

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Mwanesh

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Who leaves a bus unattended . Metroline need to change their bus handover policy .
 

pdeaves

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I seem to recall a story maybe 10 or 15 years ago about someone who posted as a metro train driver and did a good portion of a day's work before being found out. Somewhere in America, perhaps. Very hazy memory!
 

Benito

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From the Dailymail source:
He (the highjacker) let one of them, a male friend of his, drive the bus 'about 15ft
Not a very generous soul...
 

neilmc

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When I lived in Chapel Allerton in Leeds in the late 1970s I once arrived in town from a trip after the last bus and had to walk home. The quickest way was up Roseville Road past the West Yorkshire RC garage. Parked outside on the street was one of the depot's last Bristol Lodekkas. I must admit I was sorely tempted.
 

185143

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When I lived in Chapel Allerton in Leeds in the late 1970s I once arrived in town from a trip after the last bus and had to walk home. The quickest way was up Roseville Road past the West Yorkshire RC garage. Parked outside on the street was one of the depot's last Bristol Lodekkas. I must admit I was sorely tempted.
Being tempted is one thing.

Actually doing it is quite another!
 

Steamysandy

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Jethro,the Cornish comedian used to tell a joke about two Locals walking home after missing the last bus to say Polperro and they're passing the depot .
So they decide to take a bus and one goes into get a bus while the other stands guard outside.
Half an hour after much revving of buses the other one appears driving a bus.So his colleague asks him " what took you"?
His reply was the Polperro bus was at the back of the depot!
 
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83G/84D

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Jethro,the Cornish comedian used to tell a joke about two Locals walking home after missing the last bus to say Polperro and they're passing the depot .
So they decide to take a bus and one goes into get a bus while the other stands guard outside.
Half an hour after much revving of buses the other one appears driving a bus.So his colleague asks him " what took you"?
His reply was the Polperro bus was at the back of the depot!


That story has changed then! I recall him and Denzil being at Camborne and trying to get to St Just. The St Just bus was at the back of the garage. Perhaps someone has the time to look on YouTube and confirm?!
 

Steamysandy

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That story has changed then! I recall him and Denzil being at Camborne and trying to get to St Just. The St Just bus was at the back of the garage. Perhaps someone has the time to look on YouTube and confirm?!
I was trying to remember it off the top of my head!
But a similar joke could be told using North Berwick and East Coast buses depot in Musselburgh!!! ( I suppose you could do it with a few depts!!)
 

Darandio

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That story has changed then! I recall him and Denzil being at Camborne and trying to get to St Just. The St Just bus was at the back of the garage. Perhaps someone has the time to look on YouTube and confirm?!

St Just? Wear the fox hat?

Love Jethro, seen him at the Darlington Civic a couple of times.
 

Jordan Adam

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I was trying to remember it off the top of my head!
But a similar joke could be told using North Berwick and East Coast buses depot in Musselburgh!!! ( I suppose you could do it with a few depts!!)

More to the point Stagecoach in North Scotland still have a high number of out stations where buses are parked at drivers houses or in locations with no security overnight (sometimes over the weekend). While crime is low in those areas there's nothing to stop someone taking a vehicle and nobody knowing for quite some time.
 

Peter Mugridge

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More to the point Stagecoach in North Scotland still have a high number of out stations where buses are parked at drivers houses or in locations with no security overnight (sometimes over the weekend). While crime is low in those areas there's nothing to stop someone taking a vehicle and nobody knowing for quite some time.

How on Earth does their insurance company sanction that?! Buses are generally known to be a much more tempting target for vandalism and worse than an ordinary car is.
 

route101

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More to the point Stagecoach in North Scotland still have a high number of out stations where buses are parked at drivers houses or in locations with no security overnight (sometimes over the weekend). While crime is low in those areas there's nothing to stop someone taking a vehicle and nobody knowing for quite some time.

Reminds theres a guy who posts on Instagram from Caithness or near inverness , everyday hes out riding the stagecoach buses in the area . I think its just an obsession and hes young .
 

Steamysandy

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Actually a few years back now,Firsts R586 YMS (a Wright Bodied Scania) was taken from North Berwick depot and driven a few miles down a country lane where it was set alight and destroyed
 
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TheGrandWazoo

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How on Earth does their insurance company sanction that?! Buses are generally known to be a much more tempting target for vandalism and worse than an ordinary car is.

Perhaps because they self insure for theft?

Also, this incident was from a depot. Where vehicles are outbased, there are measures that can be taken to improve security and deter theft or damage.

In truth, bus theft is a lot less prevalent and hence why this is a story. Over 300 cars a day get stolen.
 

GusB

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D&E Coaches used to leave a bus overnight in the industrial estate in Nairn - parked in the street. The last time I saw it was fairly recently, so I assume the practice has carried on with Stagecoach. The local youth are more into modified Corsas with loud exhausts and probably wouldn't want to be seen driving a Streetlite, so I think we can assume the bus is quite safe :)
 

MotCO

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D&E Coaches used to leave a bus overnight in the industrial estate in Nairn - parked in the street. The last time I saw it was fairly recently, so I assume the practice has carried on with Stagecoach. The local youth are more into modified Corsas with loud exhausts and probably wouldn't want to be seen driving a Streetlite, so I think we can assume the bus is quite safe :)
Who wants to be seen driving a Streetlite? :D:D
 

Busaholic

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That story has changed then! I recall him and Denzil being at Camborne and trying to get to St Just. The St Just bus was at the back of the garage. Perhaps someone has the time to look on YouTube and confirm?!
Met Jethro's wife in a wood near Penzance a couple of years ago (we were both walking dogs as it happens!). His brothers were well-known characters in the area for years, though both were very different from Jethro. One was a chimney sweep in the winter and ice cream seller in the summer (!) while the other, Les. was proprietor of the Dock Inn on Quay Street, a pub whose quiz team I played for for a couple of years.
 

borage

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Reminds me of Stolen bus found in sea at Cleethorpes:
A stolen bus was found abandoned in the sea - about 40 miles away from where it was taken.

The single-decker was found with the engine still running in a metre of water next to the pier in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire.

Lifeboat crews helped to tow the vehicle - which was marked as "not in service" - from the sea.

Police are investigating how the bus, which went missing from Skegness, ended up in Cleethorpes.

"No-one was in the vehicle, which has now been recovered," a police spokesperson added.

Not sure if a culprit or explanation was ever found.
 

Deerfold

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A deluded idiot without a driving license for a car, let alone anything else, takes an 8 ton bus for a spin. I’d say that was potentially extremely dangerous and only good luck that nothing more serious happened.

Potentially, perhaps, but it seems to have passed with a minor altercation with a car and no-one hurt.
 

Deerfold

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Reminds me of the London Routemaster 159 bus 'found and photographed' on the moon by the Daily or Sunday Sport back around 1990 :lol: The paper wasn't to know that many years later the very last proper Routemaster route in London was to be the 159.

Don't forget it mysteriously disappeared just a couple of weeks later as reported in another exclusive from that esteemed organ.
 
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