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Paul Bilodeau parked at a Publix in Oakland Park, Florida, last week and could not help it. He could not help noticing the driver.
"Bilodeau said," and I thought he looked like a shooter – like somebody who was gonna shoot up a store. "
Bilodeau was not the first in South Florida to the festooned van, home to Cesar Altieri Sayoc Jr., the man on Friday with mailing pipe bombs to prominent Democrats across the country.
From Aventura to Hollywood to Davie and farther, people have gawked and photographed the oddball vehicle for some time.
"I saw this van dozens of times. It always struck me, always unsettled me. It's been coming to Canada, "said David Cypkin, a documentary film producer who co-produced 2006's" Cocaine Cowboys. "
"This is also Miami and you do not know – this guy's an enthusiastic Trump supporter, that's one thing, but the number of stickers he had put on his face. A problem you do not want to face directly, especially in Miami, where you do not know if anybody's armed. "
Cypkin encountered when he lived near the Shoppes at the Waterways in Aventura, where it was regularly parked. Cypkin believed someone could be living in the van, and finally, on the morning of New Year's Eve 2017, he snapped a few quick pictures so he could get a better look at some of the later decals.
"I had seen it at least a year ago," Cypkin said. "I did see someone standing at the back one time, with one of the back doors open. I did not make eye contact. "
Bilodeau, the Publix shopper in Oakland Park, kept an eye on the night before deciding he could not have a gun on him.
"He was wearing gym clothes, but, like too small," said Bilodeau, explaining why he did not believe Cesar Sayoc could be armed.
Bilodeau snapped pictures of the van and afterward saw that Sayoc had gone into Publix to buy lottery tickets. The Friday Mega Millions jackpot was nearly a billion dollars, after all.
In Davie, one of the world's leading food producers and Geo Rodriguez, a South Florida Sun Sentinel reporter, came across in front of Papa John's pizza in Hollywood.
Rodriguez, who now works for Memorial Regional Hospital, likes to take pictures of strange things around his city. He hashtags them on Instagram, #Hollyweird.
On April 6, he stepped outside to 7-11 and saw the van, parked on the swale next to Hollywood Boulevard, in front of the Papa John's. Several readers said they have seen pizza.
I've seen him off and on. You can tell he's going around here, "Rodriguez said. "I see him at the Publix here in Hollywood all the time. He's kind of like a fixture. "
When he saw the van on the news, being towed down the highway by the FBI, he remembered it right away.
"One of my coworkers was watching it on TV," said Rodriguez, and when he saw it, he thought, "I know that van!"
[email protected], 954-356-4605 or Twitter @Daniel_Sweeney
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