On Forrester Drive in Cardinal Forest, Alexander Maldonado stood by his van, a white van with a ladder rack. He had nothing to hide, and he's proved it seven times over the past few days. Four times in Fairfax County, twice in Arlington, and once in Loudoun County while on the job at his company, Colors Painting, in Centreville.
"I got pulled over a couple of times on the street, at 7-Eleven when I was getting lunch. They searched me and my vehicle. I had an FBI agent in a Suburban [who] sat there for a while and watched me. They patted me down five times," Maldonado said.
Because of his white van with ladder rack, Maldonado is caught up in a search for a sniper who has shot 12 people in the area. Although he's not upset, he is alarmed about the rumors going around and mistaken van models.
"I don't mind, you have to do what we have to do to catch this guy. Mine is a Ford Aerostar, that kind of gets to me," he said.
"I had a kid walk by and yell, 'Hey, that's the truck!'" Maldonado said.
Burke resident Doug Cowden has a white Econoline van. He's noticed the stares while at traffic lights.
"I've been asked if I'd been stopped, by friends," he said, even though the police haven't stopped him. Cowden has a contracting business, and the Home Depot at Seven Corners, where a fatal shooting occurred on Oct. 14, used to be a regular stop of his. He's changed his schedule in recent days.
"I omitted that one," he said.
The staring was something that Burke resident Joyce Zipperer noticed as well. She has a white van, too.
"At every stop sign, everybody is eyeballing everybody," she said.
Danny Triplett works for Allegiance Telecom and drives a company Chevrolet Astro which is white, fitting some of the descriptions. He hasn't been pulled over, but others in the company have.
"Other people on my team have. [The search] was really thorough," he said.
Triplett has received the stares, too.
"People will just pull up real fast and start looking," he said.
FAIRFAX COUNTY police spokesperson Cheryl Farrell has received numerous calls about suspicious vehicles since the Oct. 14 shooting.
"We're looking for Astro vans, or any description that we've received. People have called with a suspicious vehicle, and we will respond. It should be called in as a traffic stop," she said.
On Wednesday, Oct. 17, there were 50 suspicious vehicle calls between midnight and 8 a.m., and 500 for the whole day, according to Farrell.
"It's a phenomenal amount," she said, noting the calls may not be about white vans or even connected to the case. Since the sniper case is regional and "multijurisdictional," it increases the opportunity for more calls on it.
Frank Joyce, president of Pallone Chevrolet in Springfield, sees a common link with the white Astro vans.
"Almost all of them are white, commercial vehicles. We just delivered one last week, and the guy got pulled over twice since then," he said. They only had one on the lot, though.
Maldonado, an Arlington resident, said one of the officers tried to give him some relief from the inquiries.
"Now I carry one of the Fairfax County officer's cards in case I get stopped again," he said.