CONCORD, NH – A former First Student school bus driver in Rye and Greenland is accused of stalking an 8-year-old Greenland Central School student and threatening him and his family.
Michael Chick, 39, of Eliot, Maine, is charged in federal court with interstate stalking. He is accused of crossing state lines to make the threats.
Chick is being detained pending an Aug. 18 detention hearing in U.S. District Court in Concord.
Court documents allege Chick gave the child three TracFones with instructions on how to pose to take inappropriate photographs of himself; put GPS tracking devices on the parents’ vehicles and, therefore, knew when they went to police, and 6 to 10 times, he made nightly visits to the family’s home.
Police recovered the trackers from the vehicles exactly where Chick said he put them.
According to a 17-page complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Concord by Special Agent Eric Tracy of Homeland Security Investigations (HIS), when investigators from the Old Town, Maine, Police Department searched Chick’s car they found a TracFone, digital camera, duct tape, rubber gloves, sweet (candy) liquor, candy, children’s clothing including underwear, children’s toys and a magnetic GPS vehicle tracker.
On Tuesday at the Greenland Police Department, U.S. Attorney Jane Young said anyone who has any information about Chick should call HIS at 603-722-1751, and sent out an alert to the media. Investigators are concerned that there may be other alleged victims.
Chick was employed by First Student as a school bus driver, assigned to routes servicing the Greenland Central School.
According to Morin’s affidavit, on April 18, 2022, the boys’ parents told school officials Chick had been giving gifts (candy, Pokemon paraphernalia and other small toys) to their son and his sister on a regular basis.
In one conversation Chick had with the children, he told them he hid a key for his house (“under a rock near the door”). The girl started to tell him they kept their key under the door mat but, Morin wrote, it is unknown how much information she provided. That raised concerns for the parents.
On May 5, 2022, Chick stopped and asked the mother if he could attend the boy’s Little League baseball game. Upset, she told him her son’s games were for family only. The family contacted the school to ask for help. Administrators immediately contacted First Student and asked that Chick be assigned to a different route.
The parents contacted police the same day. The next day, police talked with Chick about his behavior and told him he was to have no contact with the child or his family.
On July 5, 2022, the family found two Tracfone cell phones in a Pokemon lunch box in their son’s bedroom. The child said Chick gave him the two cell phones several days after police told Chick to have no contact with him. The child said he initially refused the offer of a cell phone but after other offers, he accepted them.
Police determined that the phones had been connected to a Wi-Fi network at Chick’s home.
Police also reviewed surveillance footage, which had both audio and video, from the First Student buses of Chick and the boy between May 6, 2022, and June 15, 2022.
According to the affidavit, on those recordings, Chick talks to the child about how to use the phone and tells him that if anyone finds it, to say he found it on the ground at the school near the lost and found. “I didn’t give it to you.” He also allegedly told the boy to take the phone into the bathroom with him at school to take photos of himself.
In one conversation, Chick tells the child that when he and his mom were down in Boston at his grandmother’s house “we were right across the street. (Inaudible) and I’m doing everything I can to stop them from doing very bad things.”
In early August, the boy’s parents told investigators their child had started to share information with them that he previously was afraid to because he feared for their safety. They said he had talked about an organization that Chick referred to as “The Team.” Chick, they said, told the child that “The Team” had between 8-800 members, and that if he did not meet their demands, “The Team” would go to “Plan B,” which would result in him being kidnapped and tortured.
At the time the affidavit was written, Morin said the child had not disclosed the nature of all of the demands that were made, but said Chick asked him to make a video and that “The Team” liked clothing and underwear.
In a search of Chick’s home, investigators recovered a buttonhole-style surveillance camera, tracking devices, a large baggie of children’s underwear and handwritten notes to the child including instructions on what to wear and how to pose in selfies, investigators said.
Chick, in talking with investigators, admitted he threatened the child in conversations on the bus. He said he had the child read a threatening note, he had in his lap, that said, “You have had too many chances This is NOT working We are Done Fucking around Make this happen now or the kid disappears.”
He also told investigators he had some pictures of the child in public settings; that he cares a lot about the boy, and that he placed GPS trackers on the parents’ vehicles and, therefore, knew they had gone to the Greenland police station on several occasions.
The case was investigated by the Greenland Police Department, the Eliot Police Department, the New Hampshire Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, and the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Kasey Weiland.
The charges contained in the complaint are allegations. The defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
Community resources are available through The National Center for Missing and Exploited Kids. missingkids.org
