Stolen 911

Our Home Stolen! This Custom Shuttle Bus Was Taken

RECOVERED

January 19, 2022
  • ID -
  • 16790
Berkeley Police Department
Case # - 22-2737
2009
Ford
E450 Shuttle Bus
Color(s) - White

1/26/2021 Update – RECOVERED! They did it! The owners hunted the East Bay known hot spots and located the Joy Bus! OPD came and recovered it. A man living in it was detained and released. He stated someone parked it at the homeless camp on E 12th Street a few days earlier and just left it. Check out the whole story on YouTube. Thank you everyone for sharing this post. Put an Apple Airtag on your stuff! Be safe – Marc

MY TOP ANTI-THEFT PICKS TO PROTECT A FORD E-450

 

Original post…

Our home is gone. We spent over a year building out our shuttle bus so that we could travel the country camping and visiting family. Just days after we arrived to the home of a loved one, our home was stolen from the driveway. We have been living in our bus since September and intended to drive it home to North Carolina this spring. Although NC is “home”, we don’t even have a house to go back to there. This bus was our house and we wanted to live in it on our friends’ farm this fall. It contained our musical instruments, a bicycle, our bed, books, jewelry, clothing, shoes, kitchenware, our dog’s medicine, her security blanket, and toys … just about anything that you can think of that you’d keep in a home. We had just installed a decal above the front window of my grandfather’s artwork. He passed in October and we wanted to honor him while we traveled as he was a joyous man who loved life and people. The decal says “JOY!” Which is what we call our bus. Please help us find our home, our sweet Joy Bus. It is a white shuttle bus, a Ford e450 with an NC plate (if it hasn’t been removed). The passenger side door is actually a house door painted blue. We have a Max Air Vent on top of the bus. Lots of bumper stickers around the back door and a backup cam on the bumper. We love and miss our bus so much. Please help!

Here are some potential identifying features of our bus.

    • White Max Air Vent on top
    • Silver circular vent on driver’s side near the gas cap
    • Passenger side view mirror missing a top third of the mirror
    • Windshield crack/ding on the passenger side
    • House door on the passenger side with glass, painted blue
    • Back-up cam on the bumper
    • Back bumper dented/dinged on the passenger side
    • White wood block for hanging exterior lights to the left of the passenger door and above the back door

 

Have Information?

Text / Call

‪(408) 461-7714‬   

The thieves generally want the contents of a vehicle like this.

Ford trucks and vans using the F and E series chassis have ignition systems thieves have taught each other how to defeat.  In my experience working auto theft in the Bay Area, these include (of the model year range 1998 to 2011) the Ford F-250, F-350, F-450, F-550, E-250, E-350, and E-450 chassis.  These included popular work trucks, U-Haul type rental vans, RVs, and small commuter buses like this particular vehicle stolen in the Berkeley Hills.

I have never seen the F-150 or E-150 stolen in the same manner. Those ignitions systems of the 2000s model years seem to be hard for the crooks to defeat.

After about 2012, the Ford ignitions for all of the truck and van chassis seem to be tougher to steal.

In the future, and for anyone who owns this series, I would recommend an ignition Immobilizer like the Ravelco at NowHotWire.com.

Most importantly, these days I would hide at least two Apple AirTags on a vehicle like this.  The owner would have been able to recover this bus within a few hours in most cases using AirTags.

If you have any information regarding this stolen vehicle please call or text me at (408) 461-7714.  Thank you.  - Marc

Stolen 911 cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information. Stolen property must be confirmed with a law enforcement agency. Rewards are the responsibility of the submitting party (not Stolen 911) with guidance from law enforcement.  

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After 21 years with the CHP specializing in auto theft and fraud, I now work as a PI using Stolen 911 to develop leads recovering stolen property across the US and Canada. You can reach me at @stolen911 on Twitter and be sure to follow the crime-fighting at Facebook & Instagram.

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