Original Blog Entry: Two ice cream truck drivers battle over turf

truesee — Fri, 27 May 2011 21:03:38 GMT

Uniontown ice cream truck drivers have frosty battle

Posted: Friday, May 27, 2011 2:00 am | Updated: 11:10 pm, Thu May 26, 2011.

Josh Krysak

Herald-Standard

Turf wars have become commonplace in many aspects of American culture.

Rival gangs will battle for control of an area or their turf.

Football players wage a battle for actual turf each and every game.

Even branches of the U.S. government often wage turf wars over control of governmental actions.

But who would have guessed that such an entrenched battle could be waged over frozen treats and the merry music-making trucks that deliver them to children during the summer?

That was the question that left Uniontown police officers scratching their heads Wednesday evening after an apparent turf war between two ice cream truck drivers working in Uniontown escalated to the point where police were summoned.

Patrolman Thomas Kolencik said that police were notified shortly after 6?p.m. that two ice cream truck drivers operating in Uniontown were not doing their best to show good humor to one another.

Kolencik said that he spoke to the wife of one of the drivers who reported that another ice cream truck driver tried to run her husband s truck off the road on Hortense Street.

Kolencik said that he was able to talk to the suspect ice cream proprietor who told police that it was actually the other driver who had forced him off the road and that it wasn t the first frosty encounter between the two.

The driver told police that he had pulled up next to the other man s truck and simply said hello but was greeted with an expletive.

Meanwhile the other driver s wife said that the ongoing war between the popsickle pedlars was caused by the man police interviewed and cited numerous incidents involving the man s alleged actions, Kolencik said.

In the end, Kolencik said that he warned both drivers that they need to try and get along so that they could each continue to sell their sundaes in the city.

I talked with both drivers and instructed them that if the incidents continue, the city will have to explore revoking their permits, Kolencik said.

Neither man s identity was released as charges were not filed.

... [ More ]