Sheriff seeks tips in larceny involving Buncombe County school bus

Buncombe County sheriff’s investigators are asking for help after a larceny involving a school bus parked at North Buncombe Middle School in Weaverville, with the reported break-in happening around 2 a.m. Wednesday, June 3, 2026. The sheriff’s office released photos of a woman it described as a person of interest and urged anyone who recognizes her to contact Sergeant Sims at (828) 450-8482.

North Buncombe Middle School serves grades 7-8 and has 508 students, making the incident more than a routine property crime. Even when the theft involves a single bus, the ripple effects can reach bus routes, driver schedules and replacement costs for a district that depends on school transportation every day.

Buncombe County Schools says its Transportation Department serves nearly 10,000 students daily. The fleet includes 208 yellow buses and 45 white activity buses, a scale that shows how a theft or vandalism case can quickly become a wider operations problem for the district, especially during summer staffing and maintenance cycles. The school bus at the center of this case was parked at a campus that serves a major corridor of northern Buncombe County transportation.

Sheriff Quentin E. Miller leads the Buncombe County Sheriff's Office. Miller was elected in 2018, sworn into office on Dec. 3, 2018, and became the first African-American sheriff of Buncombe County. His office has recently handled other school-related property crimes, including cases tied to the Buncombe County Schools Family Resource Center in Candler and thefts from school buses at Enka High School. Sentences in that earlier case were announced in December 2025.

Investigators have not publicly detailed the full list of items taken from the bus, but they have made clear that the case is active and that identifying the woman in the released photos is a priority. Anyone with information can call Sergeant Sims at (828) 450-8482.