Two men carjacked a Super Shuttle van that was picking up passengers headed for Denver International Airport early this morning, robbed the five people on board and drove off with their luggage, the company’s area manager said.
As of this afternoon, police were still searching for the bright blue van.
The driver of the shuttle, an independent contractor who owns the van, picked up two men he thought were passengers needing a ride to the airport at a hotel near 18th and Champa. Four other passengers were already in the van.
Near 10th Avenue and Elizabeth, the driver stopped to pick up another woman and while he loaded her luggage one of the suspects jumped in the driver’s seat and locked the doors.
The men drove off with the passengers and then dropped them off a few blocks away, near a 7-11 convenience store, said Robert Tschupp, vice president and general manager of Super Shuttle Denver. No one was injured and there were no reports that the suspects were armed.
“The driver helped her load her luggage, walked around the van to get back in and his door was locked and one of the men was in the driver’s seat,” Tschupp said. “We’ve been in business 10 years in Denver and we’ve never had a shuttle stolen like this before. Not just that, we operate in 21 markets and in 25 years of operation we’ve never had this happen before anywhere else.”
The passengers were given a special escort to the airport since their IDs were among the items taken, Tschupp said.
Tschupp said the Super Shuttle regularly makes stops at hotels. Reservations are only required for residential pickups, he said.
The suspects had not made a reservation, he said.
The van is numbered 314, and police were searching for it with license plates 546-ICD.
Denver Post staff writer Manny Gonzales can be contacted at (303) 820-1537 or mgonzales@denverpost.com
