HUNTINGTON, Utah – A convicted pedophile recently commandeered a school bus and attempted to pick up kids at their homes, but was thwarted by alert residents.

Patrick Fredericksen, 30, was on parole for previous crimes, including sexual activity with a minor, when he recently walked off his landscaping job at a city-owned building and stole a sport utility vehicle. Police told WFMY News 2 Frederickson cruised around in the SUV until he came across a parked school bus, with student route information inside.

The man then decided to play substitute bus driver, and started going down the list to pick up students, Emery County Sheriff’s Lt. Gayle Jenson told Fox 13.

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“He did stop at one residence and tried to pick up a young child, the father intercepted that and he went on down the road at which time he met a person and asked for another address,” Jenson said. “She was very suspicious about that so she called that I and at that point we responded to that area and were able to bring this to a conclusion.”

Authorities said a Huntington employee called the sheriff’s office to report a worker laying sod at a baseball complex left with a set of master keys to the building, and a nearby funeral home employee noticed a suspicious person hanging around, and later that his vehicle was missing, The Salt Lake Tribune reports.

Frederickson, who also goes by Fredericksen and Fredrickson and Fredricksen in court records, has a long history of run-ins with the law for impersonating people and molesting kids, according to the news site.

He’s was convicted of theft, forgery and prescription forgery in 2011, and was out on parole at the time of the most recent episode. In 2006 he was convicted of impersonating an officer and third-degree felony theft for stealing a badge and posing as a firefighter.

“Fredericksen, then 20, not only listened to a police scanner and raced to accident scenes, he also stole firefighting equipment and used his faked status to lease an apartment and open lines of credit, according to a Tribune story from the time.”

Two years before that, in 2004, Fredericksen pleaded guilty to third-degree felony unlawful sexual activity with a minor, and was required to register as a sex offender, according to WFMY.

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Fredericksen was charged with first-degree felony attempted child kidnapping, two counts of second-degree felony theft, one count of third-degree felony theft and a misdemeanor for driving under the influence of a controlled substance, the Tribune reports.

Fredericksen was also charged with damaging a jail for allegedly busting a fire sprinkler pipe in his jail cell, which caused a flood in his cell and the booking area, according to Fox 13.

Jenson said Frederickson was wanted by police, and did not have authorization from his parole officer to work in Emery County.

Fredericksen’s employer, Ward Landscaping, told Fox 13 “they had no idea” he was a career criminal with a penchant for impersonating authority.

“They also said because of this they plan to revamp their hiring process when it comes to background checks,” according to the news site.