Friday, September 14, 2001
Car had Embry-Riddle sticker, no tags
Roanoke police move suspicious vehicle

As authorities followed up on tips Thursday, residents made an effort to reach out to their neighbors.

By MATT CHITTUM and KIMBERLY O'BRIEN
THE ROANOKE TIMES

   Traffic moved; teachers taught.

    The Roanoke Regional Airport reopened.

    Stores sold; people bought.

    But some Southwest Virginians found they couldn't escape feelings from paranoia to patriotism spawned by Tuesday's terrorist attacks.

    Police were on high alert.

    Roanoke police found a car abandoned at Peters Creek and Thirlane roads on Thursday with no license plates and reported it to the FBI.

    The car bears a yellow sticker on the back windshield from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla., from which at least one of the hijackers reportedly graduated.

    A Roanoke County officer first spotted the silver Nissan Sentra near the rear of the Roanoke airport last Friday, said Roanoke police spokeswoman Shelly Alley. About 12:30 a.m. Thursday, a Roanoke officer thought it suspicious and had it towed to Fire Station No. 10 on Airport Road. The FBI examined it that day.

    Roanoke police later collected several fingerprints and other evidence from the car.

    "It may not have a thing to do with anything, but we don't take chances," said Roanoke police Sgt. Jeff Bower.

    The Roanoke FBI office declined to comment.

    In Franklin County, a family from India that runs a motel called the sheriff's office Wednesday night after they received a call from someone demanding to know what country they were from. Sheriff Quint Overton assigned an extra patrol to watch the motel.

    In Blacksburg, a Virginia Tech Web designer urged people to show a sign of peace to their Arab and Muslim neighbors by laying a flower on their doorstep or at a local mosque. Rob Fentress, 31, called his idea a "Campaign of Flowers."

    "While I am usually not a fan of empty symbolism," he said, "I think there are occasions when a gesture can help make the difference between a slide into chaos and a triumphant rising above terrible circumstance."

    Fentress posted his suggestion on the Internet, and one reader told him, "Islam has declared war on Christianity."

    Others suggested he leave flowers at fire stations, too. Fentress said he would.

    Many more people around the region acted on their feelings in more traditional ways.

    Commander Earl Fitzgerald, director of the Salvation Army in Roanoke, and four volunteers spent Thursday working at a feeding station about 100 yards from where the plane hit the Pentagon.

    "It's hot," he said Thursday. "And busy."

    Another group from the Salvation Army will leave Monday to relieve Fitzgerald's crew.

    Jeffrey Deskins of Roanoke felt moved to act.

    He spent all day standing at the corner of Orange Avenue and Williamson Road with a cardboard sign that said, "LAND OF FREE STANDS ALWAYS."

    "It just hit me how lucky we are, how we take it for granted," the former homeless man said. "This country, this is ours. This is all that we have, and they're trying to take it."

    Staff writers Mike Allen and TIM THORNTON contributed to this report.

    MATT CHITTUM can be reached

   at 981-3331 or mattc@roanoke.com.

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