Greyhound is in the doghouse, after letting one of their buses get stolen in New York, sources said today.

The full-sized, but empty, bus was taken sometime this week from a Greyhound depot in Manhattan on Twelfth Avenue before being finally found this afternoon, police and bus company sources said.

No one at Greyhound even knew it was gone, until a driver for the rival Peter Pan bus company spotted the purloined transport abandoned on Astoria Boulevard, a law enforcement source said

When the driver got back to the Port Authority bus terminal he told his colleagues at Greyhound at about 2:15 a.m.

Greyhound sent a crew out to the spot where it was sighted. Lo-and-behold, they found it.

However, the bus had been tampered with – apparently by the thief – and was missing a wire on the battery that it needed to start, the law enforcement source said.

The crew returned to the station to get a qualified mechanic to head out to Astoria Boulevard. But according to police the mechanic couldn't find the spot where the bus was left, so Greyhound called cops at about 9 a.m. Police found the stolen bus at Astoria Boulevard and 29th Avenue at 12:45.

The bus – identified as bus number 6707 -- had been taken to the West Side depot on Feb. 14 for routine maintenance.

Cops yesterday poured over surveillance video from cameras that line the depot hoping to get a look at the culprit. Sources said investigators think it may have been an inside job, since the thief apparently knew how to get access to the bus battery and disable it.

Greyhound officials are now stumped as to how their bus got stolen.

"We’re working with local law enforcement," said spokeswoman Maureen Richmond.

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