Watch CBS News

Mystery Behind Creepy 'Free Candy' Van Driving Around Sacramento Solved

(CBS SF) -- It's a little early for Halloween, but residents of a Sacramento neighborhood are wondering about a van advertising "free candy."

The neighborhood kids were thrilled and curious. But their parents? Not so much.

Lawrence Bellow, 12, snapped a photo on his cellphone of the suspicious van parked outside his home.

"It looked too fake to be true, but I didn't want to get a closer look for sure," he said. "I was kind of nervous about it; I didn't know what was going on so I just wanted to get evidence in case anything happened."

His mother noticed it a day earlier at Walmart then found it parked on her street.

"It had handprints in red and it almost looked like—I think it was supposed to look like blood honestly; it just looked like the handprints were dripping down," she said. "It just felt like they were trying to track kids and it just gave me a creepy feeling."

Word was spreading fast and nervous neighbors wanted answers. CBS Sacramento found out the van belongs to a family friend of Sierra Deblonk who who was on his way to Burning Man in Nevada.

"It was a joke," she said.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.