How not to get home for the seder

As Passover winds down, here’s hoping that your travel plans worked out better than those of one unfortunate Israeli man whose efforts to return to his home in Safir were foiled by Israel’s Sabbath-observing public transportation schedule, his own erratic driving, and ultimately the Israeli police.

According to a report out of Rehovot, published by the Jerusalem Post, a middle-aged man — the report does not name him — was arrested last Saturday night — the first night of Pesach — for the crime of stealing a bus.

His motivation, as he told the cops after tipping the bus over a curb in a parking lot following a police chase through town, was his need to get home for the seder. (He reportedly lives in Safir, about 30 minutes from Rechovot by car, or an hour by bus. But with Passover eve falling on Shabbat, there were no buses running.)

The trial is scheduled for after the holidays.

No word, however, on whether he made it to the seder in the end.

And no word as to whether, in clear violation of the prohibition (Shulchan Aruach Orach Chaim 471:3), he had been pre-gaming the Four Cups to excess.