The teens were supposed to be picked up by a bus, hired by their parents, but the driver showed up hours late, leaving the teens with a night they won't forget for all the wrong reasons.
The students from Oceanside High School hired the bus to take them to and from the event, at Tony Cresthollow Country Club in Woodbury.
"They ruined my prom."
But when they were ready to leave and head to their school's after-party, Brittany Impellizari called the driver, as they'd agreed, but there was no answer.
"We told him we would be ready to leave around 9:30 and we called him 10 minutes before," she adds. "We called him at 9:15 his phone was off."
Minutes stretched to hours and school administrators tell Eyewitness News they eventually called the kids' parents to pick them up. Rich Albanese had arrived with a video camera when the bus finally rolled in.
"Where've you been? Nobody can get in touch with you. What's going on," he asked. The driver responds: "My phone's turned off."
Turned off, the driver admitted, because he'd been home, asleep. But even then the assistant principal was so disturbed by the driver's appearance he told kids not to get on the bus and to go home with their parents instead.
An unexpected end to a rite of passage, Brittany and her friend were simply furious.
"I want my money back and more...I want their business shut down," she said.
The bus belongs to a company out of Woodside, Queens called A1 Quality Limousine.
A manager told Josh Einiger she feels terrible and promised to make it right. Just moments after the story aired on Eyewitness News First at 4 p.m., we got a call that the prom limo company has issued a near total refund to the kids, a total of $1,925, in exchange for a waiver of legal liability and a promise to call Channel 7 and tell us all's well that ends well.
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