THE Yallahs Police were kept busy yesterday taking calls from anxious motorists inquiring about the stolen buses that were recovered on Good Friday during a police operation in bushes in Albion, St Thomas.

An officer at the station told the Observer yesterday that scores of people who have had their vehicles stolen at gunpoint by hoodlums over the past six months had called the station for details about the find.

“There have not been any arrests, but I can tell you that the phone has been constantly ringing as persons are inquiring about the buses,” the officer said.

The Good Friday haul was a result of an operation involving cops from the St Thomas and Kingston East police who went into the area and found the vehicles along with abandoned shells and other car parts at the site.

Toyota Hiace minibuses are one of the most sought after vehicles by criminals, police say. The buses are used mainly in the public passenger transport sector, and can be easily filtered back into the system after experts have altered their chassis numbers and other features installed to identify the vehicles.

In January, gunmen stole a 2007 Hiace bus belonging to the Heart Foundation of Jamaica at a busy Kingston intersection in broad daylight. Several days later, the shell of the vehicle was found at a premises at Trinidad Road in the Corporate Area hotbed community of Waterhouse.

Yesterday, the police renewed their warning to owners of Toyota Hiace buses to be vigilant at stoplights and secure their vehicles at nights.