I had a terrible experience with one of the bus drivers operating the shuttle bus to this hotel tonight.

Not knowing the times the bus would go (I spontaneously booked the hotel online tonight due to a missed flight connection, didn't even realize it was not connected to the terminal), I waited over 20 minutes in the rain, from about 10:17 to 10:40 p.m. When the bus finally arrived (NH buses had been there three times in the meantime), some other guests and I put our luggage into the back of the bus and sat down. The bus then stood there for two or three minutes, with no communication from the driver and no new passengers coming in...my bedraggled self said from the back of the (small) bus without thinking much "alright, let's go" - clearly audible to the driver, since it was a small bus. At that point in time, the driver immediately went into an extremely aggressive mode, getting up, turning towards me, and screaming "who the **** are you? you are NOTHING. you are NOTHING in this bus. I am THE MAN in this bus. You are nothing!" I was quite puzzled, went up to the front of the bus and said, "ok, you are the man, what is your name? Please tell me your name?" as I felt that this behavior was inappropriate enough to possibly have to be reported. Reply: "Man, you are nothing. My name is none of your ****ing business. Who the **** are you? You are NOTHING in this bus." I said something like "why are we not leaving?". He went "We leave when I say it's time - I am THE MAN - you are NOTHING." I said "when is it time?" Then he pointed at the clock, which showed 22:44, and I realized that the fixed time to leave must be 22:45. So I went back to my seat, with the driver still cussing at me. Even while he was driving, he was still swearing in an aggressive manner.

Anyway, I was quite startled by the behavior and called the hotel from the bus and said that I would want to speak to the manager on duty, to make a complaint about the driver. I assume the driver heard that. When I got out (it's a short drive), he was still agitated. Since he had refused to tell me his name, I foolishly decided to take a photo of him with my smartphone to be able to say who it was, which was probably not a good idea, because it totally set him off. He started screaming, trying to grab my phone, etc., being verbally abusive and moving towards me in a threatening manner, then refused to give me my luggage. Other passengers of the bus were quite embarrassed, but clearly didn't want to get into the middle of this and maybe somewhat saw me at fault because I started it with the "Let's go" and then by taking his photo (and several of them just wanted to get on to the next stop (Moxy Hotel) and the altercation was clearly delaying them (which the driver didn't seem to care about at all).

Anyway, I said please let me get my luggage, I want to check in. He kept screaming "who the .... are you? you are nothing!". I said "I am a paying hotel guest who would like to have his luggage so he can check in." He went "I don't give a **** who you are, you are not getting your luggage, you must delete the photo". Then - funnily - he went inside and angrily complained to a waitress of the hotel bar (lol).

After several minutes of the driver refusing to give me my suitcase, I managed to take my suitcase out of the bus (driver tried to prevent it, but I was able to open the door). I waited in the queue, checked in and made my complaint to the hotel manager (not to the waitress, like the bus driver...). The hotel manager on duty handled it very well, mentioned that this was the third complaint about one of the drivers this week (apparently the other two concerned other drivers, however - not sure what the hiring process is of the company that operates these buses), and said the hotel would comp me a taxi the next morning (in less than 6 hours), so I would not have to take the shuttle bus. I thanked her and went to bed and started typing this post.

So I thought this would be the end of the story...an hour later (after midnight), my room phone rings. "Sir, the police is here to talk to you." I was like...lol ...? I went downstairs, and two police men were waiting for me in the lobby. Somewhere around the corner I see the bus driver. The police officers were very professional and polite, took me aside and asked what happened. I basically told them what this post says - and showed them my phone, from which I had already deleted the photo. Apparently the bus driver had had the nerve to call the police on me...had told them I had hit him and what not. The police officers basically felt that this was not a matter worth their time, and were trying to calm down the driver. When he realized he wasn't getting anywhere with them, he went on yet another rant and said he studied and was PHP programmer and felt disrespected etc.

I realized that the whole thing was about him having felt disrespected by an arrogant passenger - which was not my intention at all, I was just tired after a very long day and wanted to get going - and tried to finally de-escalate the situation by saying, look, it was not my intention to insult you...driver didn't listen and walked away, just to come back and hurl more insults. The police even told him, look, the guy actually wants to apologize to you, but he wouldn't calm down. At that point, the police officers basically decided to tell him to calm down and that he was acting irrationally, to which he angrily reacted by screaming "you are all German, you conspire with each other against me" (driver was of non-German origin).

Anyway - the police apologetically let me go back to my room, I felt bad for them to be called out for such a non-event...I hope that is really the end of the story now...hopefully he doesn't come back with an axe or something.

Ah, the hotel? I won't be coming back - not because of this (hopefully singular) incident, but just because the shuttle bus that only goes every 30 minutes is way too much of a hassle, when you can walk to the Sheraton which is connected to the terminal.