Third Avenue Transit made national news on March 28, 1947, when diesel bus 1310 and driver William Lawrence Cimillo went missing from its normal route and did not return to the garage. The bus was discovered in Hollywood, Florida, on March 31, when Cimillo sent a telegram back to headquarters in New York requesting cash. He was taken into custody by local police, and blamed mental fatigue for his momentary lapse in judgement. Cimillo and the bus were returned to New York, where the wayward driver was received as a celebrity. Further investigation revealed Cimillo had run up a substantial gambling debt. He was arraigned in Bronx County Court on larceny charges for stealing the bus, but given a suspended sentence. The company gave him a second chance and reinstated him as a driver a month later. The larceny charges were dropped in 1950, and Cimillo continued in his career without any further incident. In 1948, Samuel S. Schreiber was appointed as general manager of the Third Avenue Transit Corporation. An experienced transit executive, he was hired to implement the orderly conversion of the remaining trolley lines to bus operation. Slowed briefly by wartime restrictions on gasoline and tires, all streetcar lines in Manhattan and the Bronx were converted to bus by the end of 1948. The remaining Mount Vernon and New Rochelle trolley lines followed on December 16, 1950. The last TARS streetcar operation came to an end in November 1952 with the closure of the former Yonkers Railroad lines. Third Avenue Transit System continued operating its transit franchises through its subsidiary Surface Transportation Corporation after the end of rail service. A partnership between Third Avenue Transit System and New York City Omnibus Corporation created New York Management Ownership Corporation (NYMOC) in 1954. In 1955, parent The Omnibus Corporation sold its stakes in Fifth Avenue Coach Lines and New York City Omnibus to NYMOC. In 1956, New York City Omnibus Corporation bought out the remaining shares of Third Avenue Transit System and gained control of the Surface Transportation Corporation's bus transit routes. Surface Transportation Corporation was dissolved and Third Avenue Transit was renamed Surface Transit, Incorporated. The same year, New York City Omnibus changed its name to Fifth Avenue Coach Lines. In 1962, all Fifth Avenue Coach Lines routes were taken over by the Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority following a crippling transit strike. The majority of the transit franchises are now operated by MTA Bus Company. Fifth Avenue Coach Lines continued to own and operate the old TARS subsidiary Westchester Street Transportation Company in White Plains until it was sold to Liberty Lines Transit in 1969.