GOLDEN -- A Colorado State Patrol major took five troopers out of their regular duties to shuttle a civilian employee, who was on vacation and was stranded in New Mexico, from the state border to her Thornton home, a CALL7 investigation found.

Colorado State Patrol Maj. Kris Meredith, who heads the Golden area district, authorized a three-hour trooper relay for an administrative assistant in his office in September after she was kicked off a bus in Raton, N.M., records, recordings and interviews show. She was kicked off the bus because she could produce only a photocopy of her bus ticket.

The employee called 911 in Raton to complain she was kicked off the bus, saying she was with the Colorado State Patrol, and then she called her colleagues just before 7 p.m. on Sept. 25, 2008, to ask for a ride.

“I just need a ride from [the state line],” said the administrative assistant in a phone call obtained by 7News. "I’ll do a prisoner relay. I just need to go home.”

The state patrol often relays prisoners, documents or even blood to a blood bank, but even the captain who was asked to approve the employee's trip felt a relay for personal reasons was inappropriate.

“This seems like a personal issue,” the captain says on the dispatch recordings. “This isn’t even patrol related, so I really don’t know why we're going to do something like this for her, I guess.”

The dispatcher agreed.

“That’s what we were thinking -- I wouldn’t even call,” she said.

“Good lord, you know, you ever feel like a baby sitter,” the captain says in another call.

“Every single day,” the dispatcher answers. “I’m a well-paid baby sitter.”

Meredith, who authorized the relay over the captain’s misgivings, at first said his employee was a single female, “panicked,” “in distress” and “stranded.” When confronted with the recordings, which show the employee laughing, he conceded he should probably have not used state resources to shuttle an employee who was on vacation.

“Do you think she was panicked?” CALL7 Investigator John Ferrugia asked.

“No,” Meredith answered.

“She wasn't panicked at all?” Ferrugia asked.

“No.”

“She basically needed a ride home,” Ferrugia said.

“I would agree with that assessment,” replied Meredith.

“She had money for another bus ticket,” Ferrugia said.

“That's correct,” Meredith said.

"She just didn't want to wait until 5:45 in the morning,” said Ferrugia.

“That would be the way it appears, yes,” Meredith said.

In a brief interview, the administrative assistant never said she felt in danger but just wanted a ride.

“I was coming back from Flagstaff,” she told Ferrugia. “I was trying to get home.”

For the employee’s convenience of getting home, five troopers were taken out of position and a supervisor was contacted about the relay while responding to an accident with injuries. One trooper who helped transport the employee said on dispatch recordings that he was being diverted from stopping drivers to do the relay.

Meredith said he would not rule out that similar rides for non-state reasons have happened before but said he did not expect it to be a common occurrence.

So, is the state's head of public safety, Pete Weir, concerned about how these trooper relays are being used? Apparently not.

Weir's spokesman said there is no indication the supervisor abused his discretion, no policies were violated, and Weir believes it was acceptable, and Weir believes it was an isolated incident.

The state has no plan to audit these relays to find out if there are others that raise questions and no plan to specify when the relays can be used. It is important to note here that the state patrol has been very forthcoming with records and 7NEWS is still reviewing some of them. If they raise questions, we will let you know.