Weird happenings in suburbia

Hey there everyone. After a bit of a break from ATS, I'm back on. The fall air seems to do that to me, lol.

Anyway, I've mulled this over for a while in my head and haven't really shared it, but I think it would be interesting to get some other peoples' opinions on it. Back during the winter, around December/January/February, I forget which, I was over at a friend of mines' house and we were doing the usual Saturday night rituals, hanging out, watching TV, playing some music, nothing out of the ordinary. I got a bit tired and decided to head out around 11:00 or 12:00 PM, or somewhere around that time.

Pause for a second to set up this scenery. I live in a pretty rural town in the Northeastern US. Not much happens here except boring small town stuff. There are a few larger towns nearby and we're about an hour away from New York City. I live merely 1 or 2 minutes from my friend's house (the one that I was hanging out with that evening). Okay, setting set, back to the story.

So I was getting my car and heading down his road and all was normal. From the road that he lives on, I need to make a right turn and I am about 100 feet from my driveway. I get to this intersection and I see a strange van go by with yellow flashing lights on it. I could see no markings on the van, nor did I see what kind of plate it had. So I followed the van down the street a little ways as it had really sparked an interest. As I drove a ways it turned and seemed to go off in another direction. Again, this is the trouble with pushing a story to the back of your brain. The details get fuzzy. I remember following my road for about 1 and half miles I'd say and nothing was out of the ordinary except for this van with flashing lights on it (and no siren). I ended up loosing the van as I decided to ditch following it and turned around and went back home (I was tired, it was late, etc).

Anyway, some of the details may be hazy, but the big point here is what was this van? Has anyone else had a similar experience with something like this? I don't want to start waving the conspiracy flag because a van with some lights is not enough evidence. However, hopefully this will spark some discussion if anyone else has had a similar experience. I have not seen the van since, but it has stuck in my mind after the months since I saw it.

thanks for listening!
-granola

hmmm. in a lot of countries, yellow lights are a sign of road workers/motorway maintenance/breakdown recovery vehicles.

i have to ask this though because i find it completely amazing.... you actually DROVE to your friends house, who lives 1 or 2 minutes away from you? wow!

I agree with justyc. those vehicles are mainly maintenance. Do you know of any pipelines around that stretch of road? being it was that late at night i would suppose there was a pipe issue or power issue. just my 2 bits

Originally posted by justyc
hmmm. in a lot of countries, yellow lights are a sign of road workers/motorway maintenance/breakdown recovery vehicles.

i have to ask this though because i find it completely amazing.... you actually DROVE to your friends house, who lives 1 or 2 minutes away from you? wow!

Yes, yellow lights designate road work here in the US as well. This is a distinct possibility, but I didn't see any road work being done in the general area. Breakdown recovery is a definite possibility.

To you second point. Yes it may seem weird, but our town is quite rural. Sidewalks are none existent, except for in the heart of town, which is a couple miles away. Thus, we are stuck with busy, narrow roads with very little space to walk. They're dangerous enough during the day... I can't imagine walking them at night.

Thanks for your speedy reply.

Originally posted by Xiamen
I agree with justyc. those vehicles are mainly maintenance. Do you know of any pipelines around that stretch of road? being it was that late at night i would suppose there was a pipe issue or power issue. just my 2 bits

Ah yes, maintenance is also a good point. We don't have any pipelines in our area. The only closest one is a few towns to the north. Something interesting to note is that our town maintenance vehicles are almost always yellow or white with our town symbol on the side of the driver/passenger door. They're easy to spot, whether its a pickup truck or a large plow. Again, all of this is great to add to the mix, so thank you very much for the input. It sounds like this was a road maintenance vehicle.

you should check also whether local maintenance vehicles have to carry any form of (reflective) hazard warning markings on them by law. i think most have to nowadays.

Originally posted by justyc
you should check also whether local maintenance vehicles have to carry any form of (reflective) hazard warning markings on them by law. i think most have to nowadays.

Thats what set of the alarm in my head. I have no problem with local road maintenance or routine town activity. In fact, I invite it! The roads around here are in bad enough shape as it is, so any work by them would be welcome.

However, this van had no reflective tape, window stickers, or anything that I could see that would designate it as road maintenance. I haven't seen a similar van in town either (during the day or otherwise). I only recently traded in my old school cell phone for a new camera phone. I wish I had it a few months ago to get some photos!!

yeah my dad used to do repairs on the road on cement trucks and his service vehicle had the same light you saw. On a van, it probably is a service vehicle for something.

Hello all,

I must ask one question of you, do you have railroad tracks near you that are functioning or being prepared to be made functional?

This sounds alot like the private railroad companies I have seen.

-Flashing lights
-Vans
-No sirens
-No vehicle marking.

Just thought I would throw it out there for you.

Dorian

i worked on the roads about 10 years ago but it was in the UK.
our actual road working vehicles had reflective stripes on them but we also had plain yellow vehicles for transporting workers and materails.

most nights we worked till the sun started setting
then we had to clean up
so there was a lot of nights we didnt get home till after midnight

if they were road workers
they should not have had the flashing light going
unless they were working close were you seen them

the orange flashing lights are used by all kinds of maintence workers

Not to freak you out or anything, but it could be a mortuary vehicle. They usually have no markings on them in order to keep things inconspicuous on residence calls. Some have yellow lights on them in case they are forced to park in a traffic lane, and it's easy to forget to turn them off when leaving.