A 14-year-old St. Paul boy is in custody awaiting charges after hopping into an empty school bus Monday morning and taking it for a 3½-mile trip that ended at a Roseville gas station.

Nobody was hurt in the incident, which began about 7:50 a.m. at a Holiday convenience store at Rice Street and Wheelock Parkway in St. Paul. However, the bus and some gas pumps at a Shell station at Dale Street and County Road B, where the escapade ended, sustained minor damage.

The incident began when the bus driver for Centerline Charter Corp. of St. Paul pulled into the Holiday station and went inside to grab a cup of coffee, said Lt. Lorne Rosand of the Roseville Police Department. The driver left the bus parked with the keys still in the ignition. When she returned, the bus was gone.

The driver called her boss, and police were notified.