WASHINGTON Late last month, Miller Transportation of Indianapolis had three coaches at the National Zoo as part of a trip to Washington.

The zoos parking attendant asked them to unload and pull around the corner to park while he filled the lot with cars, since they were paying $20 a piece. He told the coach drivers that after the parking spaces were filled he would let them back in to load.

The third of the Miller coaches was parked along the street when a zoo police officer rolled by and screamed at the driver: "Move that damn bus."

The driver, one of Millers most seasoned, tried to explain that he had been directed by the zoo attendant to that location, but was told that didn't mean a thing.

The police officer asked the driver for his license and the driver told him he didn't want to give it to him, at which point the officer grabbed the driver by the throat and handcuffed him.

For more than an hour and a half the driver stood at his bus handcuffed while the officer wrote three tickets, asked him how long it would take his company to get another driver, and continued to threaten him with jail.

The officer also threatened the other two drivers and the D.C. escort (the wife of a retired general), saying if they didn't walk away he would "give them the same thing this guy is getting."

When told it would take more than 24 hours to get another driver to Washington, the officer finally let the driver go, but not before telling the Miller drivers "we don't want motorcoaches here" several times.

"While we don't expect great treatment in D.C., I have never had a driver handcuffed and threatened with jail," said Steve Bahler, general manger of Miller Transportations Indianapolis division.

"We run many, many trips to D.C. and have never had anything happen like this. This is one of my top drivers, and his comment was that he supposed he should have handed his license to the guy but there was no a badge visible. He thought it was a rental cop."

When last seen, Bahler was writing letters to his congressional representatives and agreeing with one long-time coach industry Washington observer: "Motorcoaches are about as welcome in D.C. as the plague. There are so many, and they have been coming for so long, they are taken for granted."