Tempers flare in war of N.C. ice cream truck drivers

Don't let the happy music fool you. Ice cream truck wars are raging in Corolla, and it's vicious out there:

Last week, one ice cream vendor called the Currituck County sheriff on another, claiming that three trucks were following her. Another female driver carries an electronic shocking device after getting harassed by competing male drivers.

Last year, a driver slugged another driver after he was cut off by the other truck. He was charged with simple assault.

An ice cream truck owner found the tires slashed on his truck. He could not prove who did it but believes it was a competitor.

One owner threatened a lawsuit when another vendor painted his trucks almost exactly the same, with spotted cows.

The competitor changed only the color of thespots.

"For the last three years it's been crazy," said Mark Petit, former owner of Udder Delight trucks.

"It's turned into the ice cream truck wars."

He sold the business two years ago to Stanley Lirman. Petit had started Udder Delight in 1993 using trucks painted with the familiar polka-dot cow on the side.

Over the years, vendors have come and gone, but the competition has intensified, Petit said.

Residents have noticed a difference, too.

"I see a million ice cream trucks every day," said Meghan Agresto, a Corolla resident and site manager at the Currituck Beach Lighthouse.

"My kids keep pointing them out to me."

Mary Stile, owner of ice cream trucks under the name of A Plus LawnCare, has asked Currituckofficials to pass an ordinance that would limit the number of vendors and the number of trucks for each com-pany.

She said she knows of at least one company sending trucks to Corolla from Virginia Beach.

"I feel good about this," Stile said of the proposed ordinance. "I'm barely keeping my head above water."

Lirman, based in Dare County, could support such an ordinance, he said.

"I'm making half what I made two years ago because of the competition," hesaid.

Stile has accused Lirman's drivers of harassing and cutting off her drivers. It allegedly was one of Stile's drivers who punched one of Lirman's drivers last year when he felt he had been cut off.

But Lirman said he pays his workers by the hour and not by commission, so they have no reason to be aggressive.

"She's looking in the wrong direction," he said.

Stile presented her idea to Vance Aydlett, chairman of the Currituck County Board of Commissioners.

Currituck officials hesitate to regulate ice cream trucks but may have to if the bad behavior continues, Aydlett said.

"We'll have to take a look at it," he said.

Jeff Hampton, (252) 338-0159, jeff.hampton@pilotonline.com