If you’ve passed by OCAD University in Toronto in the past month, there’s no doubt you’ve noticed a peculiar new fixture on campus – a creepy, rusty white van that aptly reads “YIKES” from one side in red spray paint.
The vehicle has been parked in the exact same location directly in front of the school’s main entrance on McCaul Street for over a month now, with no apparent activity from its owner.
Is this an art installation of a school class? Anyone have an idea for a Halloween prank? A kidnapper (or worse)?
No one seems to know – especially the school itself, now bustling with students who have been in their normal first term back on campus for a while.
“Unfortunately, I myself don’t know why it’s still there. I don’t know where or who it belongs to,” Adil Khakoo, supervisor of campus safety, security and operations, told AFP this week. ‘university.
“As far as I know, this is not a work of art associated with OCAD.”
A second campus operations representative added that he had no authority over street parking in front of the building, which is the domain of the City of Toronto’s Parking Enforcement Unit and of the Toronto Police Service.
And, of course, neither the city nor the police have any idea of the story behind the van. A representative said the driver should have an on-street parking permit or an accessible permit to avoid being ticketed and towed.
“While the vehicle may be ‘scary’ and has spray painted words on it, there are no parking regulations it would be in violation of because of it,” said Brian Moniz, supervisor of operations at the Toronto Parking Police.
Indeed, during blogTO’s independent investigation, the van has a parking permit displayed in the windshield for area 6D, which runs from Queen Street to College Stret and Spadina Avenue East to McCaul. Street, expiring November 30, 2022.
The not really scary owner of the van (really, he was really nice), stopped while loading tools from the vehicle in another Friday morning, said with a smile that he was simply a resident of the area, but was unable to comment further on the “YIKES” graffiti that makes his vehicle so sinister.
He seemed unaware that his car was an enigma among locals and has appeared in a slew of social media posts, either deliberately by those wondering about it, or accidentally because it is still the.
As anti-climactic as it may be, mystery solved!
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