Bus Driver Wants Cash to Continue Trip

A charter bus driver who allegedly stopped a Chicago-to-New York trip and demanded money from each of his passengers to continue it was charged with disorderly conduct and related offenses, police said.

Kai Chen, 44, of Brooklyn, N.Y., was driving 25 people, including several small children, for a company called New Oriental Tours Inc., also out of Brooklyn, police said.

He pulled into a Venango County rest stop along Interstate 80 late Sunday night, cursed at the passengers and demanded money from them to continue the trip, passengers told police.

The passengers had already paid $2,800 for the trip and refused to pay more, so Chen took his keys and got off the bus, police said. A backup driver who was also on the bus took over for Chen and continued the trip after Chen was arrested, police said.

Chen was charged with disorderly conduct – a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail – and two citations, one for harassment and the other for not properly filling out his log book.

There is no telephone listing for New Oriental Tours in Brooklyn. A phone number for Kai Chen in Brooklyn could not be verified.

Chen, who was freed after posting $500 bond, faces a Dec. 3 preliminary hearing before District Justice William Martin in Seneca.