Comment by peterwwillis | Hacker News Reader

Comment by peterwwillis | Hacker News Reader

If you go down Powdermill Road in Beltsville, you find yourself driving through incredibly spooky open fields and past "FEDERAL PROPERTY" signs on nondescript, unmarked buildings with huge numbers and no names. There's even a fire hydrant in the middle of some kind of field. Some buildings were marked USDA (a gate to APHIS leads to a bunch of buildings behind thick forest), but it seemed incredibly creepy.

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=beltsville,+md&ll=39.033795,-...

Other weird links: here's the StreetView car passing some kind of weird truck with cables and tanks on it: https://maps.google.com/maps?q=beltsville,+md&ll=39.030349,-...

Turn around to find the "Area Under Video Surveillance" sign (surveillance? for a corn field, a barn and a forest?) https://maps.google.com/maps?q=beltsville,+md&ll=39.030268,-...

Zoom out, and there's one large barn on the map view. https://maps.google.com/maps?q=beltsville,+md&ll=39.02984,-7...

There are a lot of gates. A lot. https://maps.google.com/maps?q=beltsville,+md&ll=39.033753,-...

Whatever this facility is, there are lots of gates and fences and lots of trees blocking view. The weird sprawling government fields could just be some kind of FDA testbeds (there's more nearby, I forget what road) but it's just... creepy. https://maps.google.com/maps?q=beltsville,+md&ll=39.037453,-...

(Ironically close to Snowden Pond)

The Google map view clearly tells you that it is the Secret Service training center. Lots has been written about it; it is where they do training for protection details. http://www.secretservice.gov/about_rtc.shtml

The truck in the picture is a vacuum truck. Nothing odd about it, I see them in pretty much every city. They unclog pipes and remove material from dig sites.

Oh. Guess it was just unintentionally creepy then. I never saw SS mentioned on the map. Also sort of random, there is an SCS Lake below Beaver Dam rd.

I don't see any cables on that truck. It looks like a standard municipal water/sewage truck.

More weird trucks:

http://www.daimler-trucksnorthamerica.com/download/2010/imag...

http://www.ci.arcadia.ca.us/images/sewer_truck.jpg

http://barry-williams.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/sewage_...

http://pittonplumbing.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/New-Vac...

I see your boring sewage vehicles and raise you an x-ray truck: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DPd3ihR5Lo

I had a friend who worked for the DC Special Tactics group. He said that UPS and FedEx trucks were the best cover for "weird trucks" in a metro area. Ever since then whenever I am in a big metro area I always pay special attention to the Fedex/UPS trucks. He said that if you look closely you can tell by the rivets on the sides and the shocks/struts (I'm not a car guy I forget the appropriate term). Unfortunately I have never been able to find a "weird truck" next to a "control truck" so I am never quite sure what I am looking for.

I remember using gravel trucks for "weird trucks" in another country, because they were 1) on the roads a lot and 2) heavy/durable vehicles which were readily available; fill them with sandbags and DX'd body armor...). This was back when I was doing "low profile" vehicles, like old E34 mid-1990s bmws, to drive around. (turns out the "other" people were doing the same thing...)

You'd definitely want something heavy (like a concrete truck or garbage truck or something) if your purpose is a heavy, armored vehicle. A UPS/fedex "bread truck" is great for a lot of surveillance, although people would be suspicious if one were left parked. Utility works better for that.

That last map has it labeled as the US Secret Service James J. Rowley Training Center. Zoom in on the little blue-roofed building closest to Powder Mill Road.

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