# sniper's white van **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 30, 2002, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snipers-white-van/134484 "2002-10-30T02:39:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2002, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snipers-white-van/134484/1 "2002-10-30T02:39:01Z")
since the sniper got busted, i haven’t heard even a breath concerning his white van. has anyone else? i haven’t even heard speculation. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2002, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snipers-white-van/134484/2 "2002-10-30T02:50:33Z")
It’s like the Grey aliens always say; “Move towards the Light, Luke !” ---
**Author:** ![pud\_lumpkins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/6de8d8/32.png) [@pud\_lumpkins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pud_lumpkins)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2002, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snipers-white-van/134484/3 "2002-10-30T02:58:51Z")
heh, seems like each time someone got whacked, then a white van was seen driving away… what a kowinkydink ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2002, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snipers-white-van/134484/4 "2002-10-30T03:02:28Z")
Once one person assumed that there was a white van driving away, I think that other witnesses decided to look for a white van. And there are many white vans on the road. Did you notice that it wasn’t always a van. Sometimes it was a white box truck. And do you think that all of these "witnesses’’ were just noting something rather commonplace? ---
**Author:** ![reprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@reprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/reprise)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2002, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snipers-white-van/134484/5 "2002-10-30T03:10:19Z")
I’m inclined to agree that once “white van” got media attention it was the vehicle people were most likely to look for and notice. More disturbing are media reports that on ten separate occasions the presence of the actual vehicle used was noted by police and it’s licence plate number recorded - did anyone seriously think that vehicle’s presence in the area of the shootings 10 times was just a coincidence? ---
**Author:** ![reprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@reprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/reprise)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2002, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snipers-white-van/134484/6 "2002-10-30T03:18:50Z")
I’m inclined to agree that once “white van” got media attention it was the vehicle people were most likely to look for and notice. More disturbing are media reports that on ten separate occasions the presence of the actual vehicle used was noted by police and it’s licence plate number recorded - did anyone seriously think that vehicle’s presence in the area of the shootings 10 times was just a coincidence? ---
**Author:** ![pud\_lumpkins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/6de8d8/32.png) [@pud\_lumpkins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pud_lumpkins)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2002, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snipers-white-van/134484/7 "2002-10-30T03:32:15Z")
oh my, those silly people ---
**Author:** ![bdgr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a87d85/32.png) [@bdgr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bdgr)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2002, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snipers-white-van/134484/8 "2002-10-30T03:39:22Z")
I have heard the theory that after the press about the white van, he may have started waiting for a white van to drive by before making his shot… ---
**Author:** ![reprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@reprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/reprise)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2002, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snipers-white-van/134484/9 "2002-10-30T03:41:14Z")
Actually **bdgr** , that would have been a spretty smart piece of thinking on the sniper’s part. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2002, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snipers-white-van/134484/10 "2002-10-30T10:47:40Z")
reprise writes: \> More disturbing are media reports that on ten separate \> occasions the presence of the actual vehicle used was noted by \> police and it’s licence plate number recorded - did anyone \> seriously think that vehicle’s presence in the area of the \> shootings 10 times was just a coincidence? What media reports? I’ve seen no such reports. If it had been true that the police had been given a license plate number for any car, van, or truck seen 10 times at the shootings, they would have gone all out to immediately arrest the owner of such a vehicle. I don’t believe this story at all. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2002, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snipers-white-van/134484/11 "2002-10-30T10:57:46Z")
I’d wait a month or two for the inevitable true-crime book listing all the details. It’ll probably reveal that a white van was reported at some of the shootings and later witnesses just glommed onto any large white vehicle in the vicinity. As **BobT** pointed out, white vans/trucks are actually pretty common, and a conventional sedan like a Caprice is easily overlooked and forgotten. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2002, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snipers-white-van/134484/12 "2002-10-30T18:12:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Wendell Wagner \* > What media reports? I’ve seen no such reports. If it had been true that the police had been given a license plate number for any car, van, or truck seen 10 times at the shootings, they would have gone all out to immediately arrest the owner of such a vehicle. I don’t believe this story at all. \*\* Well, you can believe [this story](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19824-2002Oct25.html) (which will be available free of charge until Nov 8). The car had indeed been stopped 10 times but not always at the crime scene, although sometimes. But remember those attacks were in several different jurisdictions and I can believe it’s very difficult to try to do something like compare all records of all traffic stops near the time and place of the attacks and try to correlate it for the same car showing up more than once. I can only hope that they at least thought to do that. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2002, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snipers-white-van/134484/13 "2002-10-31T04:12:01Z")
CookingWithGas, That story is about how the blue Caprice was stopped at least 10 times. That has nothing to do with a white van, and that’s what reprise was talking about. The car wasn’t stopped _at the crime scene_. It was just one of the many cars that passed through the checkpoints. The police weren’t looking for a Caprice, so the fact that a car that they weren’t looking for that passed repeatedly through their checkpoints doesn’t tell us anything. ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2002, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snipers-white-van/134484/14 "2002-10-31T05:57:22Z")
I wonder what that Mexican who was trying to just make a simple phone call thinks about the “white van” link? Did the sniper wait for a white van to pull up to the pay phone? 😕 [sup]Or was it something supernatural?[/sup] ---
**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2002, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snipers-white-van/134484/15 "2002-10-31T13:55:03Z")
The Mexicans just happened to use a phone that the police had steaked out, thinking the sniper may try to contact them from it. It was not during a snipe attempt. Just wrong place at the wrong time. ---
**Author:** ![barbitu8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/839c29/32.png) [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2002, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snipers-white-van/134484/16 "2002-10-31T14:17:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Wendell Wagner \* > \*\*CookingWithGas, > > That story is about how the blue Caprice was stopped at least 10 times. That has nothing to do with a white van, and that’s what reprise was talking about. The car wasn’t stopped _at the crime scene_. It was just one of the many cars that passed through the checkpoints. The police weren’t looking for a Caprice, so the fact that a car that they weren’t looking for that passed repeatedly through their checkpoints doesn’t tell us anything. \*\* It does tell us something: how incompetent the police were. A dark-colored Caprice was seen slowly driving away from one of the crime scenes with its lights off. A dark-colored caprice is seen ten times near a sniper activity. It wasn’t at the crime scene, but it was close to it and at a checkpoint. This isn’t nuclear science, just simple arithmetic. Sometimes 1+1 does equal 2. The police were so fixated on the white van, they had tunnel vision. One person said he saw a white van near a sniper activity drive away, and that’s all thepolice concentrated upon. ---
**Author:** ![RM\_Mentock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@RM\_Mentock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RM_Mentock)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2002, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snipers-white-van/134484/17 "2002-10-31T14:31:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by barbitu8 \* > **A dark-colored caprice is seen ten times near a sniper activity. It wasn’t at the crime scene, but it was close to it and at a checkpoint. This isn’t nuclear science, just simple arithmetic. Sometimes 1+1 does equal 2.** But have they reported how many cars were seen eleven times, or more? ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2002, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snipers-white-van/134484/18 "2002-10-31T16:14:25Z")
As I understand it, the Caprice was reported to have been seen near only one of the crime scenes by witnesses. Many other cars were also seen near the shootings and reported by witnesses to police as vehicles that should be checked out. As I recall, there was also another case where the Caprice was ticketed (or maybe the driver was just warned) during the three weeks of the sniper shootings, but there was no reason to connect this with the shootings. This was somewhere vaguely in the area where the shootings were (which was, please remember, a circle centered in northern Virginia with a 120-mile diameter). The claim is that the other times that the Caprice was seen by the police was during the massive checkpoint screenings that went on during the traffic lockdowns that were set up immediately after the later shootings. Hundreds of thousands of cars passed through those checkpoints. I believe that nobody was recording a list of all the cars that went through all of those checkpoints. Who knows who many cars went through those checkpoints multiple times? The only cars that were being checked by the police as they went through the checkpoints were white or off-white vans and box trucks. There had been at least three reports of white vans being close to crime, but only one report of the Caprice, and there were reports of several other cars being close to crime scenes. The police took the reasonable option of only checking for white vans. If they had checked every car of all the descriptions they were given by witnesses, it would have meant closing down traffic for a day for a 10-mile radius around each new shootings. As it was, the locking down of traffic to search all white vans meant closing down traffic for about four hours each time. ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2002, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snipers-white-van/134484/19 "2002-10-31T16:44:37Z")
This borders on the surreal, but I’m not kidding. A long time ago, someone here at the SDMB–I think in General Questions–noted a logical fallacy which s/he described as “the van is on the corner” syndrome. The idea was that people tend to notice the things for which they are looking, and tend to ascribe a false causation to it. It has occurred to me several times in the past few weeks to look the thread up, but I haven’t been able to find it. This situation appears to be a quite literal example of the concept. I don’t suppose anyone else remembers who the poster in question was, and whether or not the analogy is a commonly used one? ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2002, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snipers-white-van/134484/20 "2002-10-31T17:51:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Wendell Wagner \* > \*\*That has nothing to do with a white van, and that’s what reprise was talking about. \*\* **reprise** was talking about the “actual vehicle used” in the crimes, to wit, the Caprice–not a white van. Thence the article I provided. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snipers-white-van/134484.md?page=2)