San Gabriel Valley : DEATH OF A SALESMAN
Police and family are looking for clues in the beating death of a Snap-On tool dealer, Hans Van Dieren, 52, whose body was found locked in his truck this week with valuable tools missing.
Van Dieren’s killer apparently was after the tools, police said, and bludgeoned the Upland resident repeatedly in the head with a blunt object before abandoning the delivery truck outside a Montclair furniture store.
Monday afternoon, Van Dieren’s wife grew suspicious when the usual call from her husband didn’t come.
Around the eastern San Gabriel Valley area where he worked, the Dutch immigrant was known by the nickname painted on his truck near its driver’s side window: “The Flying Dutchman.” Van Dieren had worked as a dealer for more than 20 years and had also persuaded two brothers, his son and his nephew to become Snap-On salesmen.
His nephew, Eric Alvarado, found Van Dieren inside his truck Monday.
“It just doesn’t make any sense,” Alvarado said. “People rob liquor stores for $20 nowadays, and now they robbed someone for tools.”
Wisconsin-based Snap-On Tools is offering a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Van Dieren’s killer
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