A mystery unfolded on my way home from work this week and I was determined to solve it.

I was driving on Violet Avenue in Poughkeepsie when I noticed a huge puddle of dried paint at the corner of East Cedar Street. That section of the roadway has a sharp incline, so I can only assume that someone with a bucket of paint in the back of their truck made a quick turn, bumping the container over.

The streak of paint continued down the street. As I drove I began to follow its path. Stretches of the roadway where vehicles can travel faster had a lighter trail of white paint, but as I approached a stop light I could see where the original vehicle had stopped, allowing more paint to spill into a puddle.

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As I continued down the street I came to another steep incline. This is where the paint really started to pour out of the truck. I can imagine the bucket rolling around in the back of the vehicle, tipping backward as it drove up the small hill.

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Now totally invested in finding the source of the spilled paint, I decided to follow the paint line as long as it went. I needed to know who spilled this paint and what happened to their vehicle. I'm not sure what I expected to find, but I pictured a truck covered in paint with someone in overalls with their hands on their head screaming "what a mess!"

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Of course, the paint had already dried, so there was no chance I would actually find the person still standing on the side of the road, but perhaps the trail would lead to some sort of answer. As I got closer to Marist College the paint line quickly turned off the road and into a parking lot. I felt a rush of adrenaline as I jerked the wheel and followed the line.

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But that's when the trail went cold. The paint spill abruptly ended in front of the New York Communications Company on West Cedar Street. I can only assume that the driver finally glanced in their rearview mirror and realized they were spilling paint, pulled into the lot and closed up the bucket.

It's not the ending I wanted, but one that I probably deserved for following a trail of dried paint down the road. But hey, it doesn't need to end here. If someone has any information about the person that spilled paint out of the back of their truck, hit me up. I have so many questions, but really just want to know what happened to that truck. Is it completely ruined? How long did it take to clean up? Hopefully one day I'll find out.

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