Billy Settlemyers was playing cheerful music from his black-and-white ice cream truck near a Las Vegas apartment complex last week when he noticed onlookers recording on their phones from his side window. People often take pictures and videos of his 1985 General Motors van, which for years has been adorned with a mock police badge and his business’s name in bold letters: “ICE CREAM PATROL. But this time it was different -- Friday morning, Settlemyers saw a viral TikTok video falsely claimed that Settlemyers’s van, packed with its 70 ice cream flavors, was an undercover vehicle for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who were using the music to lure people outside, the Washington Post reports. The TikTok user who first drew attention to Settlemyers’s truck later apologized, as Las Vegas news channel KLAS first reported. Settlemyers doesn’t plan to change his van’s design, which he spent more than four years painting partly in hopes of deterring thieves. But he's concerned that someone who believes his truck is connected to federal law enforcement could attack or harass him while he’s driving. “There’s nothing to fear from me and my ice cream truck,” Settlemyers, 56, told The Washington Post.
Settlemyers understands why people are on edge. Arrests are surging nationwide after Trump promised to deport “millions and millions of criminal aliens” when he took office Jan. 20. There have also been some false alarms. People post about ICE agents showing up somewhere and then it turns not to be true. But Settlemyers said his ice cream business, which he has run since 2016, has nothing to do with any of that. After his father had a stroke in 2012, Settlemyers said, he wanted a flexible job that would let him care for his dad. The next year, he quit his telecommunications job and bought a derelict white van on Craigslist for $700. He painted the badge along with the letters “LVICP” — standing for Las Vegas Ice Cream Patrol — on the front and back of the vehicle. On the roof, he installed a bar that flashes amber lights. The doors say “UNIT 702,” referring to Las Vegas’s area code.
Comentarios