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Pennsylvania School Bus Carrying Kids Found
Thursday, January 24, 2002
(21:33)
By Stephen Manning
Associated Press Writer

“He seemed like he wanted to turn himself over. He wanted the kids to be okay and let their parents know they were okay.”

LANDOVER HILLS, MD -- AP
A school bus driver with a loaded rifle took 13 children on a more than 100-mile odyssey Thursday that ended when he gave himself up to an off-duty police officer working security at a discount store.

None of the children were hurt. What the driver was intending to do was not immediately clear, but authorities said he faces federal kidnapping charges.

The bus picked up the students, ages 6 through 16, at Oley Valley High School in Oley, Pa., between 7:30 and 7:45 a.m. for the six-mile trip to the Berks Christian School in Birdsboro, Pa. The bus never showed up and school officials could not raise driver Otto Nuss by radio.

After a frantic, six-hour search by police helicopter and police cruisers in rainy, foggy weather, the bus and its charges were found 160 miles away, parked outside the Family Dollar store in Landover Hills near Washington.

Lt. Col. Orlando Barnes of the Prince George's County police said Nuss walked into the store and approached off-duty Officer Milton Chabla, telling him he had left a gun on the bus.
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2002 © The Associated Press.

Dan