Stolen daycare bus leads Fort Worth police on chase through several neighborhoods
FORT WORTH, Texas - A stolen daycare bus led Fort Worth police on a chase through several neighborhoods.
Cell phone video captured the chase as it entered a Grand Prairie neighborhood before eventually coming to an end in an alley.
The chase began Monday around 2:30 p.m. when Fort Worth police say they tried to pull over a bus that was reported stolen from Tender Love Childcare in Arlington. However, the bus driver refused to stop, and a chase began.
After going through several neighborhoods, the chase ended on Silver Trail in Grand Prairie.
"It shook up the neighborhood. All the neighbors came out and were looking and saying, ‘This is crazy!’ What’s going on?!’" recalled witness Krystal Powell. "There were six cops chasing him! It was a lot."
After a short foot chase, police arrested two people who were inside the bus.
Tender Love Childcare Owner Belinda Langley says the buses and vans are used to take kids to and from school.
"I’m still so confused and in shock because out of six years, we’ve never had a bus stolen from us," she said.
Staff told Arlington police they saw the bus parked in the back of the daycare on Friday. By Saturday morning, it was gone.
After Langley got the call Monday that the bus had been found, her reaction went from joy to disappointment when she saw the condition it was left in.
"Whole lot of clothes, baby formula, different food, all kinds of trash in there, alcohol," she said. "Whatever you want to think of, they just moved up there."
Langley believes someone was living in it.
"Seats gotta be replaced. Air conditioning gotta be taken care of. And I don’t know how we’re gonna get the paint off of there," she said.
Still, Langley is grateful no one was hurt during the wild police chase.
"I just thank God no kids were on there," she said. "The most important thing to me is to make sure the kids are all safe at all times."
The daycare does have surveillance cameras.
An employee said there have been prior incidents where people have stolen catalytic converters from the buses and vans.
Police have not released the names of the suspects or the charges they’re facing.