Mystery in Stockholm: 38 articulated buses have vanished and are being sought as stolen vehicles

A thoroughly absurd, almost unbelievable case has occurred in Sweden: no fewer than 38 articulated buses have disappeared in Stockholm, and it appears that, for the time being, nobody knows – or at least does not wish to reveal – where the vehicles have gone. The buses, which had already been withdrawn from Stockholm’s public transport system and were intended for sale, have since been reported as stolen, while the exact circumstances of their disappearance remain unknown. What makes the case particularly unusual is that this does not involve a few easily movable valuables, but dozens of buses, each 18 metres long, whose whereabouts the owner has so far failed to provide any meaningful information about.

According to a report by the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, the case centres on 38 red MAN buses owned by SL Finans, a subsidiary of SL (Storstockholms Lokaltrafik), which is responsible for public transport in Stockholm. They were entered as missing in the records of Larmtjänst, the Swedish insurance industry’s joint organisation dealing with vehicle thefts and wanted notices, dated 6 October, and all of the vehicles are also listed as stolen in the database of the Swedish Transport Agency, Transportstyrelsen.

Swedish public-service radio station Sveriges Radio P4 Stockholm has also published further details about the vehicles. They are said to be approximately 15-year-old MAN Lion’s City articulated buses, which previously operated in the Stockholm, Nacka and Värmdö areas. The CNG-powered buses have since been withdrawn from service and are also officially registered as temporarily off the road, meaning that they are currently not permitted to take part in road traffic.

The story is made even more peculiar by the fact that the buses had already been intended for resale. According to SL, the vehicles were to be sold to a third party, but no details were provided as to exactly what stage the sales process had reached, whether handover had already taken place, or who had last had possession of the buses. It is also unknown whether the vehicles were stored at a single depot or disappeared from several locations.

When contacted by Aftonbladet, Sophie Gunnarsson, SL’s press communications officer, said only that discussions were under way between the parties concerned and that, for the time being, they did not wish to comment on the course of events, the location or the allocation of responsibility. The company did, however, confirm that it had filed a police report. Notably, SL has not even officially confirmed the number of missing vehicles, stating that the information concerned remains uncertain, although 38 buses are listed as stolen in the records.

For the time being, the case raises more questions than it answers. Thirty-eight articulated buses together represent almost 700 metres of vehicles, meaning that their disappearance would in itself be a logistical operation that is difficult to envisage. However, the information available does not at all suggest that the buses were actually stolen in the conventional sense. Nor can it be ruled out that the case stems from an accounting or legal dispute connected with the planned sale, possession or handover of the vehicles. For now, however, these are merely possible explanations that have not been publicly substantiated by the Swedish authorities or the companies concerned.

The story, which has meanwhile appeared in several Swedish media outlets, therefore remains unresolved. The fact that a police report has been filed is known, but the whereabouts of the buses and the circumstances of their disappearance are not. For the time being, it is therefore not even clear whether an exceptionally large-scale vehicle theft has actually taken place, or whether 38 buses have simultaneously ended up in the stolen-vehicle register because of an entirely different kind of case.