Man detained in Buenos Aires after driving a stolen bus, saying it was his dream

On Sunday morning, a man was apprehended in the western sector of the Buenos Aires metropolitan region after taking a city bus without authorization and driving it several kilometers. The incident commenced around 6:30am at Empresa 216's depot in Pontevedra, Merlo district. According to investigators' reconstruction, the individual boarded a parked vehicle, drove it away, and maintained the bus's designated route while picking up passengers at various stops.

None of the passengers observed anything amiss, as the man was dressed in a shirt displaying the company logo.

The situation emerged when the bus inadvertently struck another vehicle belonging to the same company. Its driver alerted colleagues, and once it was determined that the bus had departed the depot without its assigned driver, a union representative lodged a theft report at the police station. A patrol car eventually found the bus in southern Moron.

An officer from the fourth precinct of Gervasio Pavón approached a stop near the station, raised his arm as if to accept a passenger, and once the vehicle halted, boarded it. Identifying himself as an officer, he informed the driver that he had been apprehended.

The case is being managed by Prosecutor's Office No. 2 in Moron, overseen by Fernando Capello. They have ordered a psychiatric evaluation of the detainee to ascertain whether he is fit to face charges. Upon his arrest, the man declared, "I wanted to realize my dream of becoming a bus driver." According to Perfil newspaper, officers confiscated a knife from him.

No injuries have been reported, and the bus incurred bodywork damage from the collision, which was subsequently handed over to the company for repairs before being restored to service. The detainee has not been publicly identified nor convicted. Urban bus lines, colloquially known as colectivos, serve as the primary mode of transportation in the greater Buenos Aires metropolitan area, spanning approximately ten million residents in the surrounding region of the Argentine capital. The route the man traversed exceeded eleven kilometers, as stated by certain local reports.