School bus driver stops would-be kidnapper

Quick thinking for Department of Public Works employee Joel Sablan midday Thursday.

While he's a bus driver by trade, he became a child's hero that day.

Sablan had just dropped off his students at a Dededo neighborhood around 12:20 p.m. That’s the moment he saw a teenage girl who appeared to be in distress, and a car following her close by.

"She was crying," Sablan recalled. "I guess she was telling the person I don’t want to get in and so when she saw me, she ran to my bus, and I asked her what was going on. She said that guy is trying to kidnap me so I said get into my bus."

He then followed the car, getting the license plate before confronting the driver.

"I actually spoke to the driver and told him he has no business trying to pick up strangers that’s not his daughter or any relative to begin with," Sablan said. "He said he is just trying to pick her up and I told him to leave and I told him I will call the cops."

His fellow bus driver, Billy Delgado, also witnessed what was going on – used his bus to block the driver from immediately getting away.

Sablan also tried to keep the child calm.

"She was crying but I saw a sense of relief when she got in," he said. "When I was talking to the suspect, she started crying more."

Sablan was able to get the girl home safely.

The driver, identified by the Guam Police Department as 65-year-old Melencio Santos of Dededo, took off and was later spotted at a game room in the village.

Santos was arrested on suspicion of attempted kidnapping, terrorizing, unlawful restraint, and harassment.

He is being held at the Department of Corrections prison, and will answer to the charges in Superior Court.

In the meantime, Sablan says he also thought of his children during the incident.

"Any bus driver here in DPW would’ve done that," he said. "I was glad to be there at the right time. I was very happy and glad that I was able to save her because it would’ve been bad. Thanks be to God I was able to get her home safe."

Sablan also reminded those with students who ride the bus of this: "Just be more cautious especially if your kid is walking home and it’s a far distance. I understand parents are working but even to have a friend walk them home or be a the bus stop. Especially, now a day with things going on, we need to be extra cautious."

It's a word of caution from this bus driver – a hero without a cape.