federal law enforcement agencies searching for answers and suspects.

While occasional thefts of a school bus here and there are not unheard of, thefts of multiple buses from the same school system and at the same time are.

Since early summer of 2011, numerous schools located in at least eight states have reported that thieves have entered their secured bus lots, usually under the cover of darkness with the exception of one brazen daytime heist and fled with up to six school buses at once, without a trace.

A number of the thefts have been recorded on surveillance cameras and several have shown a well orchestrated group who arrives with numerous accomplices in one or two vehicles, breaking into the secured areas and leaving with the buses.

The St. Louis school system has reported that eight of their buses have been stolen in four months while other areas including Jefferson County TX, Camden County GA., Kingsland GA., several Arkansas school systems, Nashville TN and other schools, have all lost school buses to determined auto thieves during the past few months.

Some law enforcement officials have speculated that the thefts are in response to the higher prices for scrap metal and auto parts while federal authorities are looking into a more sinister reason for their disappearances and one that may be a threat to your own city.

School buses, large in nature, make great Trojan horses and can easily be parked at any public event, shopping mall, convention center, amusement park or other large venue without it causing any alarm, suspicion or trigger any sort of alerts or public concern.

A vehicle of this size can easily hold enough explosive materials to level a large structure while causing massive human causalities, injuries and destruction reminiscent of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995 or the World Trade Center bombing in 1993.

School buses should be monitored when parked in unusual places at unusual times such as a shopping mall in a fire lane or parked in front of a courthouse in the middle of the day. These situations should throw up a red flag and the police should be notified.

Similarly, seeing a school bus rolling down the Interstate or on a city street at 3 AM should also trigger immediate reaction as this hour would be too early for normal school bus routes and too late to be in transit from a school, athletic event or normal student travel.

article from PRIVATE OFFICER INTERNAL