Surveillance video eyed for clues in Plum school bus theft, crash in Monroeville
Monroeville police still are investigating how a school bus from Plum crashed into the Vitamin Shoppe in the Penn Place shopping center last week.
Police Chief Doug Cole said there haven't been any arrests, but it appears the crash was intentional and not an accident as previously thought.
“It certainly appears that way,” Cole said.
He said police are reviewing surveillance footage from several places, including the bus and the garage in Plum from which it was stolen. He said he didn't know if one person or multiple people were involved in the incident.
“There's nothing that's jumping out at us real quickly here,” he said. “We have some avenues we're following.”
The crash happened at about 3 a.m. Nov. 19.
The First Student bus was stolen from a locked lot in Plum. It was out of service and waiting to be inspected.
Plum police Chief Jeff Armstrong said Monroeville police contacted his department early on Nov. 19 to confirm that the bus had been taken from the First Student bus garage, on Old Frankstown Road in Plum near the borders with Monroeville and Penn Hills. Officers confirmed that it was from the facility.
Whoever took the bus crashed it through a gate to get it out of the locked lot.
The bus was towed out of the Vitamin Shoppe building shortly before 8 a.m.
An employee at the garage referred questions to the corporate office of First Group, which owns First Student.
Emily Balser is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. She can be reached at 412-871-2369 or ebalser@tribweb.com. Staff writer Gideon Bradshaw contributed to this story.
