Two men hijacked a Super Shuttle van that was picking up passengers headed for Denver International Airport early Friday, robbed the five people on board and drove off with their luggage.
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 1725 Champa Street about 4:30 a.m. Four other passengers were already in the van, officials with Super Shuttle said.
The driver stopped to pick up another passenger in the Congress Park area, and while he loaded her luggage one of the suspects jumped in the driver’s seat and locked the doors, police said.
The suspects drove the van to the area of 14th Avenue and Detroit Street where they took numerous personal items from the victims and ordered them off the shuttle, police said.
There were no injuries reported and no weapon was used during the robbery, police said.
“The driver helped (a female passenger) 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,” said Robert Tschupp, vice president and general manager for Super Shuttle, Denver. “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 because their IDs were among the items taken, Tschupp said.
Tschupp said the Super Shuttle regularly makes stops at hotels and that reservations are only required for residential pickups. The suspects had not made a reservation, but told the driver they needed a ride to the airport, he said.
One of the suspects was described as black male, about 5 feet, 8 inches tall, 170 pounds with short black hair and wore silver caps on his front teeth, police said. He was wearing a black jersey with a light stripe on the sleeves.
The second suspect was described as a black male wearing a red coat. The shuttle van is described as a blue and yellow 1999 Dodge passenger van with license number 564ICD.
If anyone has informa – tion about the crime, please contact Crime Stoppers at 720-913-STOP(7567).
Staff writer Manny Gonzales can be reached at 303-820-1537 or mgonzales@denverpost.com
