Man Claiming to be Cop Takes Student Off Bus

BETHESDA, Md. -- A man claiming to be a police officer removed a child from a school bus and drove the boy away, WTOP has learned.

The incident occurred May 2 after a student from Thomas W. Pyle Middle School threw a plastic bottle from a school bus window, Montgomery County Public Schools spokesman Brian Edwards says.

The plastic bottle hit a car, and the driver of the car stopped and boarded the school bus, and flashed a badge, Edwards says.

After boarding the bus, the man asked the students if they threw the bottle and took a student off the bus.

"[The man] drove them in [his] car to the student's house, where they apparently called police," Edwards says.

But the driver was not a police officer -- he was a private investigator.

Edwards says the man was driving in his unmarked, personal vehicle.

The incident has some people wondering if the bus driver should have allowed the student to leave the bus.

"If a bus driver is stopped by a car with a person purporting to be a police officer and showing their badge, then their job is to comply with the office," Edwards says.

Montgomery County Police, the Montgomery County State's Attorney's Office and the Montgomery County Public School's transportation division are investigating the incident.

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