Like many large cities, New York has a long and storied history of crime.
But it turns out one of the city's most devious syndicates was hiding in plain sight all along.
Fortunately, the NYPD, in a massive sting operation known as "Operation Meltdown" finally stuck it to the villains involved: NYC's ice cream trucks.
In a press release, Mayor Bill de Blasio explained that many of the city's ice cream trucks had "violated traffic laws" and evaded paying fines for "nearly a decade."
To collect on the massive accumulated debt, beginning on Wednesday, June 5, the city started to seize 46 ice cream trucks.
The city of New York claims that from 2009 to 2017, various ice cream trucks accrued "22,000 summonses and nearly $4.5 million in fines for traffic violations." To avoid paying these fines, however, the truck's owners would quickly form shell companies, then re-register their trucks as being owned by the new company.
When the city's finance department went looking for the money they were owed, the company and truck who originally committed the violation would be long gone.
The city wasn't going to let this stand, however. Many of the city's ice cream trucks have been known to block crosswalks and fire hydrants, causing safety hazards.
Zachary W. Carter, the city's corporation counsel, takes this all seriously:
"We all know from common experience that ice cream trucks are magnets for children. In order to protect this particularly vulnerable category of pedestrians, our traffic laws must be strictly enforced."
The city has issued a $10,000 lawsuit against the perpetrating parties, and Mayor DeBlasio issued a statement saying:
"No New Yorker is above the law—especially those who try to ignore public safety laws and create dangerous situations for pedestrians, bikers and drivers."
Many New Yorkers were glad to see the city's ubiquitous ice cream trucks being held to justice!
Others, however, felt soft serve was above reproach.
On Twitter, many thought the city had better things to do than track down ice cream trucks for their parking violations.
It certainly was a lot of hubbub centered around some vanilla cones...
However, after reading the details of the investigation, many had to admit this seemed like a worse offense than a single evaded parking ticket.
Justice is swift!
