"Tom McParland" (tommcparland)
08/07/2014 at 22:03 • Filed to: weirdos
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"Tom McParland" (tommcparland)
08/07/2014 at 22:03 • Filed to: weirdos | 8
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I as I was driving my wife to the gym I have to pass through this rather sad shopping center with a giant parking lot. On the one end of the lot there is a Toys R Us and a few empty storefronts. All the way on the opposite end of the lot (we are talking about 50 yards or so) is unkempt area, with broken pavement, and overgrown weeds. There was a van like the one pictured tucked back in the wooded area. No cars around it and well far away from any stores. It didn't seem right...so I called the local PD and reported a suspicious vehicle. It was probably nothing, but if there was some weirdo in a white van parked near a Toys R Us, I want someone to look into it.
dogisbadob
> Tom McParland
08/07/2014 at 22:05 |
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Free Candy
desertdog5051
> Tom McParland
08/07/2014 at 22:09 |
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Sounds like a scene from a Blues Brothers movie. Probably a good thing you did, though.
BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather
> Tom McParland
08/07/2014 at 22:10 |
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STRANGER DANGER - A SHORT CAUTIONARY TALE:
thebigbossyboss
> Tom McParland
08/07/2014 at 22:15 |
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If it was a sedan back there would you have called? Just curious.
petebmwm
> Tom McParland
08/07/2014 at 22:21 |
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call me next time. We can do graffiti on it!
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petebmwm
> thebigbossyboss
08/07/2014 at 22:23 |
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depends on the color... if it's black and white with lights on top..no.
Nibby
> Tom McParland
08/07/2014 at 22:26 |
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Tom McParland
> thebigbossyboss
08/07/2014 at 22:26 |
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Depends...maybe. It struck me as odd because I've never seen anyone parked back there. All the cars are always near the stores.
TheBloody, Oppositelock lives on in our shitposts.
> dogisbadob
08/07/2014 at 22:31 |
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Philbert/Phartnagle
> Tom McParland
08/08/2014 at 00:29 |
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Good call IMO. If you can save just one person/child, then all of the calls that turned out to be ok are well worth the minor inconvenience to someone legit they might cause.
Fatamericanstig
> Tom McParland
08/08/2014 at 01:06 |
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You know, contractors tend to use vans near places of business. Or it might have just been a surveyor, they use cargo vans as well. Maybe i'm being too optimistic and it's a horrible child molester.
Hi there
> Fatamericanstig
08/08/2014 at 09:45 |
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My best friend is a ridiculously effective tree cutting and hauling machine (not like lumberjack, more like tree service) and when he first struck out on his own he did it in a $200 1985 Chevy 1 ton white van with no back windows with a 350cid v8, carb, and some kind of slushbox of a transmission. It was a spectacularly reliable machine and he regularly dragged 8-10klb loads behind the thing (at low speeds up to ~35 mph) for over a year before he sold it for $1500 to his chimney sweep neighbor down the street. That chimney sweep still drives it 5 days a week.
05STi
> Tom McParland
08/08/2014 at 12:08 |
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Some people live in conversion vans
Ad_absurdum_per_aspera
> Tom McParland
08/10/2014 at 13:43 |
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If it was really the sort of van depicted — newish, passenger configuration with plenty of windows — it doesn't really match my (probably media rather than fact based anyway) creep stereotype. The choice of parking spot was a bit odd; better safe than sorry, I suppose.
Was it shaded whereas the rest of the parking lot wasn't? Maybe they had a bulky purchase in mind — or just a large family, a prime reason for owning such a van — and Dad dropped off Mom and the kids at the store and went to find shade parking. (Maybe he was even in there, taking a nap or listening to the game on the radio, while the kids ran around and shrieked and composed arguments for why love is best expressed through brightly colored plastic consumer goods with cartoon and movie tie-ins.)
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Tom McParland
> Ad_absurdum_per_aspera
08/10/2014 at 14:00 |
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All are possibilities and all are perfectly legal so they should have nothing to worry about. But with several reports of robberies and arrestes for molestors or attempted molestors in the area I decided to call.
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Ad_absurdum_per_aspera
> Tom McParland
08/10/2014 at 16:50 |
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> several reports of robberies and arrestes for molestors or attempted molestors in the area
Ah. That recent-local-knowledge aspect tips it in your direction, definitely.