Kansas City News Blog

Following a tip about a van covered in apocalyptic prophecy, I traveled to Independence in search of some good crazy. I wasn't able to find the mind behind the mystic van of prophecy, but I was able to find the vehicle itself. And, as promised, it's pretty wacky.

The van covered with dire warnings of God's wrath has been parked at the corner of Lexington and River in Independence for months now. To actually quote it would be to assault the reader, so let's just leave it at this: The world's going to end in 2010, and you're fucked, sinner.

William Sheldon, of the Church of Christ occupying space across from the van's current parking spot, assumes the driver is leaving it there because of the area's religious significance.

"They're doing it because of this spot's importance to Mormonism and Joseph Smith," Sheldon says. Smith predicted that the new Jerusalem would be located in Independence.

Besides Sheldon's church, the intersection is surrounded by houses of worship.

Sheldon sadly had no idea who owns the van, or how to reach him or her. "I've never see them," he says. "The police can't do anything about it because it's public space, and they must move it at night when no one's around because I don't know that anyone's seen whoever it is."

He also doubted anyone was taking the van's messages to heart, and said most people just try to ignore it.

For more on the religious significance of Independence, check out Justin Kendall's 2007 feature, "The Search for the Garden of Eden." It's one of my favorite Pitch stories in the last few years, and like the spiritual journeys of many a man, ends in horrible frustration and the pervading sense of a waiting, avaricious, void.