OXNARD, CA, Apr. 23 – Sheriff’s Sgt. Glenn Fisher thought he had come upon a major disaster early Monday.

A bus lay in a ditch. Scattered nearby were several nude forms.

As Fisher shined a flashlight at the figures sprawled in the weeds, some of them began to move.

Their wayward hippie bus bogged down in a ditch in Deer Canyon off Pacific Coast Highway, 12 miles south of Oxnard.

The nine young women and five young men awakened by the officer explained the bus went into the ditch quite by accident and they had bedded down for the night in the weeds.

No one was hurt in the mishap, they said.

Sgt. Fisher radioed headquarters, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office described the scene and had the bus license checked.

Minutes later (it was 1 a.m.) Fisher was informed the bus had been stolen from San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district 11 days ago.

So, Fisher suggested everybody ought to get dressed, then he radioed for a bus to haul the hippies down to the station.

As the small band was about to leave the canyon, one of the young women, who identified herself as Mary Bruner, said — “Wait, my baby’s on the bus.” She gathered up her week-old son.

The baby was born, explained the 23-year-old mother, “somewhere along the line while we’ve been on this bus trip.”

The woman was booked on a charge of endangering the life or health of a child. The baby was placed in protective custody at Ventura County General Hospital.

The young mother said she had no address other than the bus, but that her parents live in Madison, Wis.

The self-proclaimed leader of the band of wanderers gave his name as Charles W. Manson. He was booked on suspicion of grand theft in connection with the theft of the bus.

He also was booked on a charge of having a fraudulent driver’s license. He carried two, one with the name Manson, the other with the name Charles Maddox, deputies said.

Three others on the bus had fictitious driver’s licenses and were booked on that charge. Two of the group were booked for disorderly conduct.

Two of the men and three of the women were released when they were able to establish their identities and prove they were not runaway minors.

One gave her name as Sadie Glutz, Venice, another Diane Blues.

They refused to tell officers how long they had been living together, where they had come from or where they were going.

“All claimed to be over 21,” reported deputy Fred Ohlrich. “But we have reason to believe those we haven’t been able to get a good identification on are minors and probably runaways.”

The wayward bus was towed out of the ditch later in the day by the sheriff’s office and impounded for its rightful owner in San Francisco.

By CHARLES HILLINGER