What a Mysterious Waste of a Truck.

By George:

When I first started this blog in September of 2010, I didn't want to start off with anything controversial, so I chose to do a story about a tractor trailer truck that I have been walking past for many months.  The truck was almost brand new, parked next to an abandoned building, and has not moved for about 6 months when I wrote the article.  If you don't know what I am referring to, read the article here before continuing.

As mentioned above, I wrote that article as a lark just to get my "feet wet" in the blogging business, and then continued with more important topics. But as the months progressed, I continued to trek past this selfsame truck, and questions percolated through my curious, and now suspicious mind. Why would someone park a truck worth about a quarter million dollars, keep it in running condition, yet not use it? So I started to do some inquiries.

But wait.... rather than rewriting the story. let me just copy the text of the email that I eventually sent to Homeland Security about it. Yes, I DID eventually contact THE Homeland Security with the following email, and since I have NOT had any response from them, I am sharing this information with you, my readers.

FROM: UnmitigatedTruth
TO: securitythreat@hq.dhs.gov

I had called earlier today to express my concern regarding a fully operation 53" tractor trailer that I have been documenting for about the past two years. Initially I have written about this truck in a posting on my blog as a curiosity, but to me it appears that it might be more than that.

Please read the initial posting at http://www.unmitigated-truth.com/2010/09/case-of-lonely-truck.html and then I'll fill in the the rest of the saga.

Attached are photographs that I have taken along the way when I thought that I should start documenting this. They are in numerical sequence, and most of them have the date and time stamp on them. I had to remove some of the photographs because it was over the limit, so the rest of the photos will be in a second email.

After I published the blog article, a friend who knows someone at the Carlstadt, NJ police department, managed to get me the phone number of the listed owner of the truck. I called the number, left my return number, and the next day got a call from a very nervous sounding man speaking with an accent that I wasn't sure of. When I told him that I noticed the truck parked in the same place for a very long time and was wondering why a perfectly good truck was not being used, he tried to assure me that it was being used. I told him that I am NOT calling in any official capacity, but just out of curiosity, and we ended the conversation. Subsequent to my conversation with the owner, the truck was moved backward about 15 feet. As for the assurances that the truck was being used, I have been checking the wheel hub odometer on the trailer, and it has not been moved. I decided to continue documenting with photographs as needed.

I have documented in the blog article that I had given all the pictures (up to that point) to both the Carlstadt, NJ police department and the Bergen Record reporter along with the maps showing the truck, but I got no feedback from either. The truck remained in the same place. Since then, whenever I chance upon a police cruiser belonging to Carlstadt, I would tell the officer about the truck, and each time they said that they would check.

left for vacation the middle of April, 2011, and didn't resume my morning walks (due to foot injury) until the middle of May. When I resumed my walks, I noticed the truck missing. I happily told my coworkers about the truck finally being gone, but about 3 weeks later the truck reappeared at the same place. When I got to work that day, I had a nagging feeling that something changed, so the next time I walked by I took another set of photographs of the truck.

Sure enough, the front license plate had changed. I then checked the odometer and was surprised to see that the truck had only moved .1 (one tenth) mile in the past 3 or more weeks while it was gone. Everything else remained the same.

To me the situation of an expensive truck being idled in perfect running condition seems suspicious. I was frustrated at not being able to get any answers, until my coworker suggested that I contact the Homeland Security Department, which I now readily did.

If you do decide to investigate, I would appreciate if you could give me some feedback via email of the resolution, whether it is benign or perhaps sinister. I would also appreciate if you then also give me permission to share the results with the readers of my blog. Of course, if there should be any reason not to share it, I would certainly comply.

f there are any questions that I have not answered or if you have any questions I haven't thought of, please either correspond with me via email, or my cell phone. Thank you for your efforts on our behalf.

George xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Unmitigated-Truth.com
Cell xxx-xxx-xxxx

So there you have the update that I sent to Homeland Security on June 21, 2011. I received no response, and the truck reamained as it was. I won't include all the photos I sent to HS, but I will show you the change in license plates and odometer readings. Please note the dates on the photographs.

This is the original license plate.....

This is the odometer before my vacation.....

This is the license plate after my vacation.....

...while this is the odometer after my vacation.....

As you can clearly see, the truck had traveled .1 (one tenth) mile while it was being re-registered.

When my office was relocated last July to our original location and I no longer had the occasion to keep an eye on the truck, I figured that this was the end of the truck story for me. Luckily, one of my co-workers drives near the truck location on his way to work, so I asked him to keep an eye on the truck for me.

Not really expecting any changes, I was quite surprised when he told me that he saw someone doing something to the truck, then he showed me a photo of another license plate change. He also took a shot of the odometer. His photos (displayed below) are not the best quality and don't have a date stamp, but they were taken just a few weeks ago.

And there you have the story up to now. You can check on the truck on satellite photos, or you can go visit it (using the satellite map in the original story, or if you need more info to find the truck, email me).

All I ask you, my readers, is if you have a theory about this mystery or find out what the real story is with this truck, please let me know so I can satisfy my curiosity, and also the curiosity of other readers.