Boy, 6, dropped off at wrong bus stop in Beechview

BEECHVIEW, Pa. — A young boy was dropped off at the wrong bus stop, more than a mile away from his home in Beechview Wednesday afternoon.

Dominic Gritz, 6, was supposed to get off at a stop near the intersection of Hampshire and Broadway avenues, but when that didn’t happen his mother’s boyfriend became concerned.

Christine Gritz said she received a frantic call from her boyfriend that he couldn’t find Dominic.

She said that after running several blocks calling out Dominic’s name, her boyfriend found him two stops away. Gritz said another boy had noticed that Dominic had gotten off at the wrong stop.

“He's never been six blocks away from home. We never even walk up in that direction,” said Gritz. “My son, 6 years old, crossed the street for the first time by himself without anybody holding his hand. It was a bad situation.”

Gritz’s son was coming home from summer camp when the incident happened, but she said it’s not the first time a mix-up has occurred with the camp. Last year, Dominic was left at summer camp.

“It’s a shame. I just don't think we have a good system where anybody asked my son if he was OK, if he was lost or where he was going,” said Gritz. “If a child is out there and he's not with a parent, he's not with an adult, he's not with a teenager, somebody should ask him, ‘Are you OK? Are you lost?’”

Gritz said she doesn’t blame anybody for what happened, and is glad that her son is safe.

“If it went a different way, I probably would have been furious,” she said.

A supervisor at Roenigk Bus Company said Dominic missed his stop after not getting off until the next stop.

A spokeswoman for the Pittsburgh School District said a transportation director would be following up on the matter.

WPXI