Man who approached Suffolk home was checking bus route

Posted to: News Suffolk

By Cindy Clayton
The Virginian-Pilot
© July 9, 2008

SUFFOLK

Police say a man who they were seeking after a resident reported an attempted abduction actually was a school bus driver trying to confirm his summer route.

A resident in the Cedar Crest Subdivision off Crittenden Road called police on July 2 to report that a man approached a home saying he was there to pick up a child for summer school, police said Tuesday.

This morning, police wrote in a news release that the man who went to the home is a school bus driver. The man was in his own vehicle and was trying to verify the address for his route.

A child at the home was registered for a summer program at one time, police wrote. The child’s grandmother talked with the man, but miscommunication led to the misunderstanding, according to police.

The woman called police after she asked the driver several questions that he couldn’t answer.

Police released a description of the man and his truck Tuesday and were asking residents to call police if they had seen him.

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Indentity Confusion

Submitted by vgn700 on Wed, 07/09/2008 at 3:30 pm.

A diligent school bus driver checking out new route meets a cautious family member. Both meant well here. And yet, we ended up with fear, confusion, and waste of police resources.

This year, a common practice of learning routes by driving them in empty school buses may be too fuel-costly. However, ALL workers out in the communities and their employers of every type could help by wearing photo IDs. Let's be more considerate but not relax efforts to keep our kids safe.

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safety

Submitted by sara7744 on Wed, 07/09/2008 at 3:23 pm.

What bus driver comes up to a house? I would have been frightened. Especially if there were questions that he couldn't answer...I mean what the hell is he trying to hide if he wasn't doing anything wrong?

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This all could have easily been avoided.

Submitted by rainstorm on Wed, 07/09/2008 at 2:16 pm.

If the man had been wearing his official Suffolk Public Schools ID badge, and had shown it to the woman and identified himself as a school employee, this whole situation could have been avoided. There is a reason school employees are supposed to wear their ID badges. Think of all the manhours of police time that were wasted because of this.

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