Texas ? A driver who apparently took her work rules very seriously abandoned a bus full of former prisoners along a highway because her hours for the day were over, police said.

The 40 passengers had been paroled or released from the state prison in Huntsville. Some wore ankle bracelet monitors.

They were aboard a charter bus that was headed Thursday to a terminal in Dallas but wound up 60 miles short.

“In 31 years in law enforcement I’ve never seen anything like this,” Corsicana Police Sgt. Lamoin Lawhon said.

The driver pulled over in front of a convenience store and told the passengers her allotted driving time was up and another driver was on the way.

A clerk in the convenience store called police. Dispatchers exchanged several phone calls with Greyhound and prison officials while Lawhon and two other officers stayed with the bus and the passengers.

A second bus arrived a few hours later with three drivers – including the one who had abandoned her passengers in the first place, Lawhon said.