Crazy news stories aren’t new in this century. In 1947, William Cimillo was a bus driver for Surface Transportation Company, for whom he had worked for 17 years. Instead of driving his usual route, he one day decided to head for New Jersey. For days, no one heard a thing from him. His family was worried, and there were rumors that his bus had been hijacked or that he had been in a horrible accident.
Surface Transportation Company received a telegram from Florida two weeks after Cimillo went missing, requesting $50. He had run out of money. It was later found out that Cimillo had spent those two weeks driving down the East Coast of the United States, and he claimed that he just needed a break from the city and his life. Police and a mechanic were sent to escort him—and the bus—back to New York City. While this crime would get you years behind bars in today’s society, Cimillo’s story had a much different ending.
His fellow bus drivers helped pay for his defense and ultimately aided in getting the charges dropped. People were intrigued by the bus driver’s adventure, which led the Surface Transportation Company to offer Cimillo the option to continue his work. He drove the bus for sixteen more years.