Teens In Astoria Wreck School Buses, Company Launches Fundraiser

ASTORIA, QUEENS — A school bus company in Astoria is asking for the community's help after a group of teenagers damaged eight of their buses in the last month.

Astoria Express Transit, located at 26-34 18th St., launched a fundraiser to help the company cover the costs of their school buses' broken windows, mirrors, and doors wrecked by a group of teens in several instances.

The total cost of damages has been over $100,000.

"We're in jeopardy of closing," owner Gail Gualotuna, whose parents first opened the bus service in the 1980s, told Patch. "We've never experienced this before. We want to continue to provide to families, but we don't know how much it's going to cost."

Gualotuna said the teenagers first broke into the facility on March 23 and then on April 2, when they took the keys to one of the buses and rammed into the rest of the vehicles in the lot.

Security footage caught the minors breaking into Astoria Express Transit again on April 4, and Gualotuna called the cops. The teenagers were arrested, but released shortly after, she said.

The group of teenagers broke into the business on April 23 and another time on Sunday, May 7, damaging the buses' windows and doors.

"I've pretty much used all my savings," Gualotuna said. "We just came back from the pandemic and we wanted to grow, but I can't seem to be able to do that."

The bus company, which provides door-to-door service for students in Queens, launched a fundraiser on Tuesday to help pay for the bus repairs. The GoFundMe has raised over $4,000 as of Friday afternoon and has set a goal of $50,000.