Abandoned backpack leads to missing school bus and man accused of stealing it, feds say

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An abandoned backpack — with a Saudi Arabian passport inside — found at the scene of a break-in helped catch a man accused of stealing a school bus days later in northern New Jersey, federal prosecutors said. The bus was also found.

The public school bus, belonging to the Livingston Board of Education, was stolen as it sat alongside other buses in a parking lot the morning of Jan. 17, according to the Livingston Police Department.

Two days before the theft, an unoccupied home across the street from the parking lot was broken into and a backpack with a passport belonging to a 22-year-old Saudi Arabian national was found, according to federal prosecutors.

Authorities tracked the man and found him with the keys to the stolen school bus about 60 miles west in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania where he was immediately arrested, according to a complaint filed in court. The Livingston school bus was located afterward in Stroudsburg, investigators said.

Now he is facing a federal charge of transporting a stolen school bus across state lines, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey announced in a Jan. 26 news release.

The complaint says the man is in the U.S. on a student visa but was reported missing after leaving an unspecified university he was studying at.

A motive for stealing the school bus remains a mystery as officials haven’t specified one.

“Why he stole a school bus and his possible motivation or plans are still part of the ongoing investigation,” Livingston police said in a Jan. 23 news release announcing state charges against him.

He was also charged in connection with the burglary on Jan. 15, according to police.

The man’s attorney Frederica Miller declined a request for comment from McClatchy News on Jan. 30.

More on the investigation

On Jan. 15, police were called to a break-in at an empty Livingston home and found a backpack containing the man’s passport as well as journals with violent notes written in Arabic inside, according to the complaint.

The journals were translated to English, according to the complaint, with some excerpts stating:

  • “Why didn’t you slaughter the police officer who threw the Quran?”

  • “This is a war, and there will be losses, and collateral losses.”

  • “It is a war and y’all [sic] started, feel the rage.”

  • “Destruction of the new world and the earth will be destroyed from all sides.”

  • “God I am ready for your orders. I want to live the rest of my life to serve you and the religion.”

  • “Blood, blood, destruction, destruction. Allah”

  • “Jews control everything.”

The journals also showed that the man didn’t plan on returning to Saudi Arabia and discussed “Jihad,” the complaint says.

“Jihad” is an Arabic word that directly translates to “struggle” or “effort” in English, according to Encyclopedia Britannica. It has been wrongly interpreted historically in Western society as meaning “holy war” and “primarily refers to the human struggle to promote what is right and to prevent what is wrong.”

After the Livingston school bus was reported stolen two days after the break-in, police at schools in and around Livingston, including in Nutley and Fairfield, were on high alert.

Law enforcement traced the man to Stroudsburg and arrested him before the stolen school bus was found on Jan. 19, according to investigators.

Livingston police said he was located through “surveillance and inter-agency cooperation.”

It wasn’t specified where exactly the man was arrested or where the school bus was found in Stroudsburg in the complaint.

Matthew Reilly, a public affairs officer for the attorney’s office, told McClatchy News that he can only comment on what’s included in the complaint and declined to provide more details.

Livingston is about 30 miles east of New York City.

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