I’m assuming not a crime victim. Today while driving I saw a white monotone mini van. There were no markings implying it was part of a business or a law enforcement vehicle.
The only windows were the windshield and the front seat passenger windows (which is rare, but I’ve seen that before), no side or rear windows. What was odd was that the door handles seemed like they had been replaced with locks. Not just padlocks, but someone had attached these circular locks to the doors so that if anyone from outside tried to get in, they would need a key to open the doors. I’d never seen car door locks like that.
I’ve seen the vans that are used to transport prisoners, and those are marked as police vehicles and I think have windows. Plus I don’t believe they have locks like that on the outside handles.
Plus this vehicle was unescorted. There was no escort (law enforcement or otherwise) either in front of or behind this car. I saw it make a turn and no cars were in front of or behind it along with the car.
So I was thinking it was either to transport prisoners or to transport some valuable cargo (money, diamonds, etc). But why wouldn’t it be escorted, or have some identifying marks?
It doesn’t need to be jewels or anything. Plenty of run-of-the-mill work vans might be carrying well into five figures worth of easily fence-able tools and parts. Upgrading the locks to something a little less jimmy-able isn’t uncommon.
I drove a work van for a while that had a big beefy padlock on the back door because the OE lock had previously been broken out by a prowler. Although that may have had more to do with my boss being a cheapskate and not actually wanting to replace the factory parts.
Assuming there was a driver’s side window the unusual part would be the door locks. Perhaps it’s some kind of armored vehicle for transporting money or valuables.
ETA: Did you see the plates? At least some states would require commercial plates or some other specialty if there are no rear windows.
What you described is pretty much common as anything in the UK - plain white vans with beefy locks on the doors. It’s usually works vans (not everyone bothers to get their vans signwritten, either for cost or anonymity reasons) that contain tools and equipment. So your van could have contained anything from priceless jewels to a couple of bags of cement and a bag of screwdrivers.
We lived in a neighborhood where the HOA forbade any vehicles to display any sort of work info or advertising. It’s possible the owner of that van lives in such a community. Because goodness knows we can’t have our neighbors knowing that we actually *work *for a living. :rolleyes:
A friend of ours is a plumber. His tools are remarkably expensive and there’s a depressingly active market in tools of uncertain ownership. Copper pipe is also breathtakingly expensive. The average plumber probably has in excess of $2,000 in pipe fittings in their truck just to cover the basic needs without looking amateurish because they have to run off to the store in the middle of a job.
jesus christ, what is wrong with you? tradespeople who go from site to site carry all of their tools with them, and those tools are easily stolen. vehicle door locks aren’t that secure; people buying work vehicles often have them fitted with hasps and those “weird circular locks” which are more resistant to bolt cutters.
Was it something like this? That doesn’t sound too unusual to me for a service/work van that will be carrying thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars of tools and equipment.
I’m confused as well. What the OP is explaining is perfectly normal. No windows and puck locks are pretty standard for plumbers, electricians and HVAC people that all might have $10,000+ worth of tools and parts and equipment in their truck…and other people are well aware of it. Plus, they spend lots of time away from it. If you walk into a megamart and see a guy half hanging out of a freezer case with a blow torch and his vacuum pump is already next to him, he probably won’t be back out to his truck for a little while.
My BIL got all the tools stolen out of his truck (pick up with a locked cap) from Home Depot. The people new exactly what they were doing, the pulled a van in between his truck and the store so the cameras couldn’t see anything. It’s probably a safe assumption that someone followed him from a worksite. I think they got about $6k worth of tools.
Just as a point of reference, a leak detector runs about $500. A tank of refrigerant could be anywhere from $100 to $1000 depending on what kind it is, a couple hundred feet of romex can be $50-$100. HVAC pressure switches can be well over a hundred dollars. I can keep going, but this stuff adds up very quickly and has to be on the truck all the time so they only have to make one trip to fix the problem. My HVAC guys don’t use puck locks, but all the windows are covered. You’d know what’s inside because they’re name is on the side, but you’d still have to break not only the glass but also the wood bars and plywood that cover the windows to get in.
And, yes, jz78817, they do carry everything with them. My HVAC people, for example, leave the shop in the morning and might go on 3 or 4 or 8 calls before going back. They can’t go to a site, diagnose the problem, run to the shop, get the tools the need, come back to the site, start working, make another trip for more tools etc and then do the same thing for the next job. If I have a freezer at work in the process of melting with thousands of dollars of stuff in it, I need it fixed in the next few hours, it can’t be an all day project because they don’t want to carry their tools around with them. They only time they go back is if they need a part they don’t have like an obscure motor or a new compressor or valve reeds. But they best have all their meters and gauges, vacuum and recovery pumps and all the typical types of refrigerant ready to go. Especially since they’re on the clock the entire time.
As others have said, it sounds like a basic cargo van to me. It was either loaded with tools and supplies for some business that works out on job sites, like a construction company, or it was a delivery vehicle.