Bus stop Batman prompts police pursuit of Caped Crusader

It's like something out of a comic book: Police cars mobilize, attempting to track down Batman. But Monday afternoon, the Hesperia Unified School District Police were taking it very seriously.

"A school teacher on her way home passed a bus stop and saw a bunch of kids at a bus stop, and there was a person in a Batman costume standing next to a van, playing a flute," Chief Bob Mosley, formerly with the Los Angeles Police Department, said Thursday. The black and silver van also had an older man and a young woman inside. "We assume the Batman person was [with] the people in the van."

Police cars were scrambled to the bus stop, near the intersection of Escondido Avenue and Cedar Street, but "by the time we got officers out there, they were already gone."

It was the day after April Fool's Day, but Mosley said he and his department couldn't afford to take the report lightly.

"The thing is, we're suspicious of anybody that's at a bus stop with a bunch of kids, especially in a costume. The teacher went over into the local housing development to see if they had someone had hired him for some promotional purpose."

What was going on Monday afternoon, Mosley does not know.

"Your guess is as good as mine. It could have been someone, you know, whose son was having a birthday and they surprised him at the bus stop. It could have been a promotional thing. We have to assume the worst."

The HUSD police department is trying to determine the identity of the children at the stop as part of their investigation.

"Nobody reported anything and we don't know who the kids were. They could have been kids who got off the bus stop or kids who just were walking by," Mosley said.

"To me, at the time, it wasn't funny, because I'm thinking pedophiles, they use lots of things to entice kids and then the van was out there, and any number of things could have happened."

Those with information about the Batman incident are asked to call the Hesperia Unified School District Police at 244-1091.

Beau Yarbrough can be reached at 956-7108 or at beau@hesperiastar.com.