Mister Softee DIDN’T Attack Haagen Dasz

CORRECTION:  I picked up the story from NBC New York and Lunch’er Rich’s email on Midtown Lunch that a Mister Softee driver assaulted a Haagen Dazs street vendor.  Turns out, the driver was an independent and not affiliated with Mister Softee.  My apologies.

James Conway, President of Mister Softee writes:

Sean… your report of the fight involving the haagen-dazs vendor is incorrect. The truck / driver involved is a red & white independent truck – not Mister Softee. Go to http://www.midtownlunch.com for a picture taken at the scene.

My apologies for repeating the error…  I’ve corrected the post below.

_________________________________________________________________

The ice cream truck feuds in New York are getting violent, with both franchised and independent vendors losing their cool.

Monday we reported (Mister Softee Accused of Threats & Thuggery) on the allegations that a Queens Mister Softee franchise owner and his drivers were allegedly threatening competitors with violence to scare them off routes some have served for 30 years.

Yesterday, in Midtown, an independent driver is alleged to have physically attacked a Haagen Dazs cart vendor.

According to Midtown Lunch:

…earlier today two ice cream vendors got into a fist fight over the corner of 6th Ave and 50th Street. The cops were already on scene when I walked up, and an ambulance showed up shortly thereafter (although it looked like only one vendor was hurt, and it was just a black eye.) I’m not sure exactly what happened because both the Police sergeant and the vendors pretty much refused to talk to me- but it looked like the vendors were given the opportunity to press charges and both get arrested, or make up with each other and just receive tickets.

One of Midtown Lunch’s readers witnessed the scene:

…a fight broke out between the mr. softee driver and the vendor who runs the Haagen Dazs cart on 50th and 6th. The softee guy started it, and was physically attacking the cart vendor.

The Midtown Lunch reader misidentified the attacking driver as Mister Softee (he actually drove an independent truck similar to Mister Softee), unfairly adding fuel to the bad press Mister Softee has been getting of late.

In Mister Softee Accused of Threats & Thuggery, I quoted an alleged victim, Martin Price, as saying that ““These Mister Softee guys, they think they’re the mafia — that they could rub everybody out…They think they own the streets. They keep threatening everybody.”

Not a good couple of weeks for Mister Softee, who also was busted on drug charges:  MISTER SOFTEE Busted in Drug Sting

WHAT DO YOU THINK?  SHARE A COMMENT BELOW.

Photo of a random Mister Softee truck in Manhattan.  (Not involved in this story)  Credit: storm2k

Post from: Franchise Pick