RUSKIN -- Wimauma is not shown on current maps for HART, the Hillsborough County transit authority. That means anyone taking the bus there would have to walk or grab a taxi or rideshare to get there.
One man faces charges for choosing an even more expensive trip.
The Sheriff's Office says 36 year old Roberto Allen showed up where a HART van was parked at a shopping center on College Avenue in Ruskin Wednesday morning, demanding to be taken from there to Wimauma, about nine miles away. When the driver refused, Allen jumped in the driver's seat and threatened him.
Deputies got a 911 call from the driver but when they arrived, the van had left. It turns out the driver took off, possibly hauling Allen to Wimauma, because that's where the law found him, at a gas station on State Road 674.
The driver wasn't hurt. HART suffered two serious attacks on bus drivers in 2019. One was stabbed to death, another survived. Those incidents led to efforts to step up driver safety.
Photos: Hillsborough Sheriff's Office