Carjackers were no match for a brave SEPTA driver and his 15-ton bus

By Thomas Fitzgerald, Philadelphia Inquirer

PHILADELPHIA — Route 5 SEPTA bus driver Chris DeShields interrupted what appeared to be a Fishtown carjacking last week on a late-night run by using his 40-foot bus to box in and scare off the would-be robbers.

He was driving north on Frankford Avenue at about 10:40 p.m., carrying five passengers, said Chris Valentin, chief bus operations officer for the agency, citing a report on the episode.

A daylong rain had stopped and few were outside. Looking to his left, DeShields said, he saw three men who looked to be in their 20s surrounding a young woman they'd forced out of a car. One snatched the keys.

In a flash, DeShields angled the bus across West Thompson Street, leaned on the horn, flashed the blinkers and shouted out the windows.

"They had masks on, but you could see their eyes popping wide open," the 17-year bus operator told The Inquirer on Friday. "Like, 'What do we do now?'" The would-be carjackers ran. After all, a 30,000-pound bus hemmed them in.

Under SEPTA policy, bus operators must keep themselves, passengers, and others safe, and they are discouraged from intervening in a crime. But within that framework drivers are allowed to use discretion, transit authority officials said.

"I caught hell in the depot the next day," DeShields, 38, said, on a day off from his regular 4:30 p.m.-to- 2:05 a.m. shift. "My coworkers were laughing and teasing me, saying, 'We heard you were Batman.'"

He noted, "I'll get my revenge."

Valentin said he had never heard of a bus operator intervening in a carjacking or robbery in progress, though drivers have helped victims of crime and people in distress, or summoned police.

"They are not encouraged to do it, but sometimes it happens," Valentin said. "You never want to put yourself, the passengers, or other people in jeopardy. ... But he saw a carjacking and made a judgment call in an instant, and we're happy it worked out and everyone was safe."

DeShields said he agrees the policy makes sense. "I don't recommend people go out and fight crime, and I don't have any kind of training for that," he said. "But as a citizen I think you need to help out if you can. See something, say something."

With the danger over, he said, he stepped down from the bus for a minute to ask people in a bar to watch the woman until she was able to get help. And then he got back in and continued the route "to get my passengers home."

He saw police cars racing to the scene, but when he swung by that part of the route again later in the evening, all was quiet. The woman and her car and the officers were gone, he said. Police confirmed the incident occurred but provided no further details.

More than 40 hours later, DeShields said the adrenaline was still pumping. "It was one of those nights where you are trying to get through work and then — Bam! My radar's been up ever since. It was scary but exciting at the same time."

"If you were raised a certain way and you've got a bit of heart, you're going to get involved with certain things," he said. "I've got a soon-to-be wife, and my sister — I would love somebody to help them if they get in a jam."

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