{"id":4937,"date":"2009-06-05T08:15:08","date_gmt":"2009-06-05T13:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/?p=4937"},"modified":"2009-06-05T13:31:19","modified_gmt":"2009-06-05T18:31:19","slug":"this_is_no_softee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/archives\/2009\/06\/this_is_no_softee.html","title":{"rendered":"This Is No Softee"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lest you assume Mister Softee trucks are only about small-time drug deals or that they’re merely a convenient spot from which pedophiles can operate, know that there is also a dark side to the business<\/a>:<\/p>\n

An ice-cream truck driver and two cohorts gave a Good Humor operator in Queens more than just a cold shoulder when they threatened to put his business on ice, authorities said yesterday. <\/p>\n

George Peralta, 27, and his accomplices penned in Ernesto Valverde, 50, by parking an ice-cream truck in front of and another behind Valverde’s vehicle in Elmhurst Tuesday, police sources said. <\/p>\n

Peralta, along with Andy Arevalo, 23, and an unidentified man, then took Valverde’s keys and gave a chilling threat, “Stay off [our] route. We know where you live. We know where you parked the truck,” according to a criminal complaint.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Update: Mister Softee Vice President Jim Conway writes in to set the record straight:<\/p>\n

The article you referenced in the NY Post is factually incorrect. Ronald Baretela is not a Mister Softee franchisee and the trucks in question are not Mister Softee trucks.<\/p>\n

Additionally, we are troubled by your disparaging remarks in regards to our franchisees. In the twelve years I have been in the management of Mister Softee no franchisee has been accused of either selling drugs or improper conduct towards children. Your comments are both false and offensive.<\/p>\n

The overwhelming majority of our franchisees are married men and women with families. These people are classic small business people who work hard to provide for their families. <\/p>\n

Spending up to 10 or 12 hours a day selling ice cream on the streets of NYC is a difficult and often trying job. To belittle these good people with unsubstantiated myths is irresponsible.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Fair enough! Satirical glibness aside, of course I didn’t mean to say that I<\/em> necessarily assumed that Mister Softee trucks sold<\/a> drugs<\/a> of any kind<\/a> or that ice cream truck drivers in general are anything<\/a> less<\/a> than model<\/a> citizens<\/a>, just that, you know, some may have that perception<\/a> is all . . .<\/p>\n

See Also: Mister Softee<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lest you assume Mister Softee trucks are only about small-time drug deals or that they’re merely a convenient spot from which pedophiles can operate, know that there is also a dark side to the business: An ice-cream truck driver and two cohorts gave a Good Humor operator in Queens more than just a cold shoulder […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blatant_localism","category-queens"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4937"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4944,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4937\/revisions\/4944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}