Cellphone video captured a school bus being taken on a joyride through the streets of Bangor, Maine on May 3.
After shooting the video, John St. Germain climbed out of his car, jumped onto the moving bus, and helped bring it (and its underage driver) to a halt.
“The point when St. Germain jumped on the bus was just prior to the bus making a turn onto Bangor’s Griffin Road, which is a very busy route during that time of the day,” the Bangor Police Department wrote on its Facebook page.
“There is no question in our minds that John St.Germain saved the youth from causing more property damage but it is highly likely that he also saved the boy and other drivers from injury.”
Bangor police say the bus was stolen from the nearby Bangor Cyr bus lines terminal after the child, whose name is not being released, obtained keys to the bus. Police are not sure how that occurred.
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St. Germain and a friend were driving in the vicinity when they noticed the bus was driving erratically. They started following the bus, filming it with a cellphone while they called police, until they made a startling discovery.
“There’s a little kid driving a school bus!” St. Germain can be heard telling police over the phone.
“That’s when it got scary.”
According to police, St. Germain darted from his vehicle and approached the moving bus, managing to squeeze through the side doors.
St. Germain was honoured with a challenge coin from the Bangor Police Department as a thank you for his quick thinking.
The 12-year-old boy was taken into custody.