Two days after INDY Week called N.C. Department of Transportation about the Americans for Prosperity Foundation ice cream van, abandoned in the District Drive park-and-ride in Raleigh, the vehicle was gone.
DOT spokesperson Jennifer Garifo said the agency called the owner in Missouri on Wednesday; on Thursday the van had been moved. The name of the owner was not immediately available.
The INDY reported this week on the case of the van, plastered with insignia of the right-wing organization founded by the Koch Brothers. The local chapter, AFP-NC, has included Art Pope among its board members. The van had been stashed in the park-and-ride for nearly three months. The District Drive park-and-ride is owned by the N.C. DOT, but as a public transportation agency, Triangle Transit can use it. The lot is always overflowing during business hours; people often have to park their cars in the grass.
Drivers are not allowed to leave cars in park-and-ride lots overnight.
Ironically, Americans for Prosperity has opposed mass transit funding in several states; yet the group left its van in a lot designated for riders of … mass transit.
