COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — A Calumet Heights teen has been charged in what prosecutors said was his role in the heist of eight buses from a private lot on Chicago's Southeast Side more than a month ago.
Angel Bivanco, 19, of the 500 block of Douglas Avenue in Calumet Heights was charged with four counts of aggravated possession of a stolen motor vehicle, three additional charges of stolen motor vehicle possession and possession of marijuana.
The eight buses were stolen on March 8 by at least four unknown suspects with the help of Bivanco, prosecutors said in court on Sunday.
The buses were taken from the Sunrise Bus Company and Charter Services in the 10100 block of South Torrence Avenue sometime before 5 a.m., police said in March. But cops said they found the buses soon later by tracking them down through GPS signals to the West Side lot in the 3400 block of South Lawndale Avenue.
Prosecutors said Bivanco drove the other suspects around from the bus lot to the scrap yard and back again so all four could drive the buses.
Bivanco was arrested on Friday, police records show. After investigating his 2004 Buick LaSabre, officers found about eight ounces of suspected marijuana inside a graham cracker box resting on the front passenger seat, according to police records.
Bivanco admitted to police that he'd used the Buick to transport the other suspects during the theft, according to police records.
Bivanco was ordered held in lieu of $150,000 bail on Sunday by Cook County Judge Maria Kuriakos Ciesil.
Police initially said they had others in custody, but no one else has been charged in connection to the theft. However, the owner of the Sunrise Bus Company, Serigo Quintero, was arrested shortly after the incident for an unrelated charge. Quintero was charged with possession of a title without assignment for not having the title for a 1994 Nissan Altima, police had said.
