arndt@neavax.DEC (10/11/85)
This vision spawned in my fevered brain last night as I sat on my couch
with the family watching the nightly news stories about the PLO capture
of the Italian cruise ship. As I chortled to myself my wife edged farther
away saying, "I have a headache" and the kids moved closer looking expectantly
at me for the source of my amusement.
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AND NOW THE NEWS:
Newark, N.J. - An abandoned 54 Devine St. bus that was noticed by police
today appears to have been the object of a PLO hijacking sometime in the
late 1970s. Inside were the badly decomposed bodies (pictures in the late
edition) of 17 passengers, 4 hijackers, 3 dogs, and 2 bag ladies. What drew
the attention of the police was a fire started by one of the bag ladies in
her attempt to protest the presidential candidacy of Barry Goldwater. Her
companion stated that she was a firm Johnson supporter and obsessed with
the idea that right wing extremists, led by Jerry Falwell - though still a
mere lad - would take over the nation and impose THEIR values on us all.
As an honors graduate of Radclife and a certified Liberal Democrat she
felt the need to speak out in a manner that would capture the imagination
of the public. So she set fire to herself. The fire had burned through six
layers of newspaper and crud before the Newark Fire Dept. managed to storm the
bus and put her out. Defiantly waving a single finger at the cameras and
shouting "Extremism in the defense of Liberty is no vice" she promised to do
it again as medical attendants took her away. When our reporter pointed out
that this was 1985 and the election the poor woman was concerned about was
long over her companion said, "She doesn't give up old ideas easily. We're
Liberal Democrats, you know."
Police then entered the bus and discovered the passengers, the hijackers,
and the dogs. One of the hijackers left a diary of his ordeal from which
it is possible to piece together the story of what happened on the bus. It
seems that after boarding the bus at 18th Ave. (without the correct change,
which caused a brief altercation with the driver who tried to refuse them
entrance despite the weapons they carried) they immediately shot two of
the passengers but couldn't get the rest to notice their presence. They
then preceded to divert the bus from its formal route and yelling slogans
and scattering leaflets they shot at passers-by as they went - expecting to
get the attention of the authorities and media coverage. But to their
total amazement, nothing happened except for some disultory return fire
from armed passers-by and being cut off in traffic by a couple of taxi
cabs and a school bus. Finally they noticed a Newark Police cruiser in
traffic ahead of them and shot out the rear window which caused the cruiser
to speed up and quickly turn off at the next intersection and pull into
a White Castle where the two officers went inside and sat at the counter
and looked the other way as the bus crawled by outside.
The first of many nights they spent under a traffic bridge down at Port Newark
trying to understand what was happening to them and fighting off attacks by
organized gangs attempting to jack up the bus and steal the tires and engine.
The passengers still did not acknowledge their presence.
Dawn rose on the second day and they were full of hope and revolutionary
zeal. The driver kept writing on his trip sheet, which they at first thought
might be an attempt to drop a note out calling for help, which led to a
discussion as to should they look the other way in order to finally get some
attention, but it turned out he was only making note of his overtime.
As they passed through the streets of Newark again slowing down from time to
time in the traffic, they noticed people would beat on the doors and shout
curses at them, giving rise to the hope they were discovered and just down the
street would be a police roadblock and a showdown before the cameras. They
finally realized the these people were trying to get ON the bus and were angry
they wouldn't stop and open the doors.
Soon there arose a supply problem as the food they brought with them was only
meant to last a few hours - a day at most - and then they had counted on the
authorities to supply them and their hostages with everything. By now the
passengers had noticed them since one of them (a Mr. Rosenberg) was a tort
lawyer and had passed his card around to everyone and assured them that they
could sue the bus driver, the bus company, the city, the state, the nation and
perhaps get something from God for all their suffering and inconvenience. And
he'd take the standard cut in such cases. The hijackers felt they were making
progress since they now could get the passengers to acknowledge they existed.
They pulled into the parking lot of a Burger King "Busses Welcome" and ordered
a Mr. Polochck, married to Mrs. Polochck (who sat beside him) for 32 years
to go inside and order 45 hamburgers, 10 Whalers,27 large fries, 20 cokes,
and 14 hot apple pies or they would blow off Mrs. Polochck's head. He marched
into the store as they held a gun to Mrs. Polochck's head in plain view and
ordered 1 hamberger, 1 large fry and 1 coke, turned and smiled, waved
good bye to his wife, shot a bird at the hijackers and sat down at a table to
eat. Totally nonplused, the hijackers neglected to shoot a raging
Mrs. Polochck and ordered the driver to move on.
(At this point the diary starts to become incoherent.)
They finally managed to obtain a food supply by letting on passengers, usually
little old ladies, with shopping bags waiting in front of food marts.
After several days of failing to attract anyone's attention outside the bus
the hijackers decided to give up and go back to training camp with this new
wrinkle in Urban Warfare Against the Oppressor. However, it seems that the
passengers, led by Mr. Rosenberg and aided by the driver who had been promised
he would not be sued but could join their suit, wouldn't LET THEM OFF THE BUS.
Their thinking was, the longer the ordeal lasted the greater amount in damages
the passengers could collect. The hijackers were low in ammunition, at a loss
as to what to do next and throughly cowed by the demands of the passengers that
they continue the hijacking. After a feeble attempt to debark the bus, beat
back largely by Mrs. Polochck who lived for revenge against her husband, the
hijackers were disarmed and herded to the back of the bus. (They were found in
a pathetic pile under the rear seat.)
It is not known for how long the bus actually managed to roam the streets of
Newark or how all on it came to their grim end. There seems to have been some
kind of falling out among the passengers. Some had on white arm bands and
some had on red. In any case the bus came to rest on the side of Rt22 leading
out of Newark heading towards Springfield and was not investigated by the
authorities until the fire. How the dogs entered the picture is the big
mystery!
We asked the Chief of Police how it could be that a bus load of people could
disappear and no one notice. He said that it was not unusual, there were any
number of buses missing from the public garages and the records from the
late '70s themselves were missing after an attempt to investigate charges
that the Public Transport Dept. was involved in selling city busses to
Long Island fishing industry officials for use as artificial reefs off shore.
It would seem that none of the passengers, either the original 17 or the
little old ladies picked up later were ever missed by anyone. The driver
was carried on the books as being owed over $3 million in back wages, although
it cannot be determined when he went missing as his union brothers kept
punching his time card in and out up until the day of the fire.
Mr. Polochck was unavailable for comment, being on his honeymoon in Bermuda
with his third (teenage) wife.
The PLO has no record of a hijack team missing in Newark, NJ.
However there is a record of a lost dog in 1976 that seems to fit the remains
of one of the three dogs found on the bus. A man is on his way to view the
remains and we will bring you an interview with him about this potentially
heart warming story if a positive identification is made.
AFTER THIS BRIEF COMMERCIAL WE'LL BE BACK WITH THE LATEST ON THE FATHER WHO
FED HIS CHILDREN TO HIS TROPICAL FISH . . .
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Keep chargin'
Ken Arndt