Las Vegas-Bound Bus Is Hijacked; Passengers Robbed

Two men, at least one of them armed, boarded a Las Vegas-bound bus in Vista early Sunday, ordered the driver to start driving, then robbed the 47 passengers--mostly elderly women planning a one-day gambling trip--while the bus cruised through quiet suburban streets.

After pocketing wallets, purses and cash, the robbers ordered the driver to stop on a dead-end street. The pair then left the bus and escaped, less than 10 minutes after the hijacking began. Authorities say that they may have been picked up by accomplices in a car that was seen following the bus.

Authorities said a total of $3,877 in cash was stolen from the passengers.

The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, which was interviewing bus occupants for hours after the robbery Sunday, was searching for the robbers, described only as Latino men. No one was injured in the incident, which spoiled a planned 24-hour gambling trip for the participants. One woman was said to have fainted during the hijacking, but she recovered.

“We were going to Las Vegas to have a nice day and everything, and, all of a sudden, all this happens,” one woman passenger, who lost more than $250, told San Diego radio station KFMB.

Several area residents who spoke with the passengers said that the driver was apparently under the impression that the departing bandits had left a bomb in the bus. After the pair exited at Walker Way, a small street in Vista, the neighbors said, the driver hurriedly ordered the passengers off the bus, drove the vehicle down a hill, and abandoned the bus, fearing the presence of a bomb.

The driver told the neighbors that one of the men warned him not to “try anything” because the hijacker had left “a little surprise” on the bus.

Afterward, the passengers were shaken.

“They were all in pretty bad shape; they were in shock,” said Patricia Borchmann, a Vista resident who spoke to some of them immediately afterward. “They stood in the middle of the street and consoled each other and said they were glad to be alive.”

Some of the frightened passengers took refuge in the home of Terry and Diahn Rook.

“One lady burst through our door and hid in our bedroom with the door locked and wouldn’t come out until . . . she was absolutely sure there was no danger,” Terry Rook said.

One passenger told residents that he contemplated making a lunge for the robber’s gun, but later thought better of it. “Hell, I was gonna lose my $300 in Las Vegas anyway,” the passenger said, according to a neighbor.

During the ordeal, one of the robbers reportedly pushed and shoved passengers and shouted profanities; the other bandit didn’t touch anyone. The Sheriff’s Department said one of the assailants told passengers upon leaving, “We’ll mail your wallets back to you.”

The Sheriff’s Department provided the following account:

The incident began at 8:15 a.m., after most of the participants had entered the chartered bus, which was waiting for passengers outside the Vista Recreation Center. One of the assailants approached the bus and asked if there was room for any more. The driver said there was one empty seat.

The young man’s appearance apparently didn’t reassure some passengers.

“I thought, ‘Oh, my heavens! Is that character going to sit . . . back by us?’ ” the woman passenger told KFMB.

Upon entering the bus, the man brandished a pistol and eventually fired a shot into the ceiling. It was not immediately clear when his accomplice entered the bus, but the man with the gun ordered the bus driver to start the vehicle. While the man with the pistol watched the driver, Sheriff’s Sgt. Scanlon said, the other robber went from row to row in the bus with a small ice chest, ordering passengers to put their wallets, purses and cash into it. The robbers did not ask for jewelry.

After less than 10 minutes of cruising through the quiet streets, the assailants ordered the driver to take the bus to the 100 block of Walker Way, just a few blocks from where the ordeal began; the two men exited the bus there. The entire distance covered was just two to three miles on a circuitous route, authorities estimated.

Investigators suspect that the robbers may have been picked up by accomplices in a 1985 or 1986 red Ford Thunderbird.

Once the episode receded into the past, the mood of the bus occupants improved considerably--one official described a “party atmosphere” as the passengers gathered at the sheriff’s office in Vista. Nervous relatives were also called to the scene.

“The resiliency of these people is something,” said Scanlon, who was at the station where the passengers were being interviewed by authorities. “They tried to get another bus to take them . . . to Las Vegas. . . . They were in very high spirits.”

The bus involved was chartered from Roesch Lines, based in San Bernardino. A company official declined to provide details of the rental. The firm runs monthly charters to Las Vegas, advertising them on community bulletin boards in Vista, officials said.

Using witnesses’ accounts, authorities were preparing composite drawings of the suspects, who wore no masks but evidently did use gloves in an attempt to avoid leaving fingerprints.

If apprehended, the robbers could be charged with 47 counts of robbery and 47 counts of kidnaping, authorities said.