To thing the icecream man is up to something?

[LigPatin]

It's January. It's 4c and it's raining.
Surely no one is buying enough icecream to make it worthwhile?
Yet the van is still slogging on, Yankeedoodling his way up and down the street.
We live in a village, there's no events nearby.

How would you even know though?

Surely people don’t just go up to the van and ask for ‘whatever the current term is’ for weed? Or whatever?

OMG my ice cream man must have been gutted when I ran out on an autumn afternoon to ask if he'd help move my sofa that I'd jammed in the front door

Thinking back, I met him and the owner and they earned enough in the summer to spend 4 months a year in Australia. I honestly thought it was the mark up on ice cream!

People let off fireworks around here in daylight or summer when they have drugs in...

I bet they hate November.

Oh I dunno. After all, why deal from a safely anonymous cuckoo-ed flat/car using a burner phone when you can instead use a very conspicuous vehicle that plays a tune and that will be surrounded by witnesses as soon as it stops?*

@XXcstatic that really made me laugh

An ice cream man came to my student village every night.

I bought Magnums from him. No idea there was something else going on!

Awww we used to get a screwball Ice cream, bottles of Reef and a ready rolled zoot off our ice cream man.

Yep ours sells drugs too. Since I can remember we were always told not to buy anything needing, cos they're probably laundering money too!

needing change!

I'm going to be looking very carefully at the next icecream van I see.

Now what do drug dealers look like? Will he be in disguise?

How do you all know he sells drugs? I'd never suspect that.

My ice cream van used to sell everything. Fags, bread, milk, dog food etc. So was more a mobile shop but sold ice cream as well. Nothing dodgy.

Last time I was in the UK at Christmas time was a couple of years ago and we went to the local park on Boxing Day. Bright and clear but cold enough that puddles and the pond were frozen over. Didn't stop my 2 begging for ice cream from the van though!

Could be side-dealing in drugs, I suppose, or could just be catering to the holiday atmosphere that invokes ice cream, regardless of temperature and weather.

How the hell can I have got to my rapidly approaching 50th birthday and not know that this is an actual thing?

We never see an ice cream van unless there is hosepipe ban on or the tarmac is melting, so I am amazed that so many of you have them all year.

Also, if it so well known, why don't the police just raid the van? Not exactly inconspicuous is it?

“Thought it was common knowledge a lot of ice cream men sell weed etc.”

Probably is to curtain twitching mumsnetters like yourself

Am I the only person here wondering how to ask the ice cream man if he sells weed .

I feel like I couldn’t come out with it even if I wanted to buy some in case I was way off the mark and he was horrified!

As an American, I've never heard of an ice cream truck coming around in the winter. Sounds very fishy to me.

Personally I wouldn’t eat out of a van, but that’s just me

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Hibernating ice cream man Didcatylos

I wonder how often they're asked for drugs? And do they find that amusing or irritating? A bit like when Jay from the Inbetweeners was convinced the ice cream lady sold blow jobs because that's what he heard. Sadly for him none of them did.

Honestly you haven't wondered how they make a living selling only ice cream???
It is well known sole traders deal drugs as well as other things. Most of them are associated with criminal gangs due to this and there are wars over their selling spots.
Even window cleaners in my area are being bullied out by the criminals wanting some proof of earnings lately as they see it as an easy earn and proof of business.
It's appalling they get away with this.

But of course they don't want the hard work they want the easy money without thinking of any consequences.

Ice cream man at my uni was deals on wheels too. Cash business so ideal for selling drugs - and as you can see, it’s a bit of a tradition. They have to get through the long winter months somehow!

I've never heard of it with local ice cream vans, but they do only come round in summer. But now I think about it, it wouldn't surprise me in some areas.

As someone else said, isn't it a bit obvious though to police? It's not like there would be a long chase, is it?

Tonibell used to sell a 'Christmas Pudding' ice cream, family sized pink ice cream bombe with fruit in, cassata type affair. Very popular through the winter months.

Frederick's (Crooked Spire area) is dodgy? I'm surprised, they are a family business with a small 'hand made' production facility. In the summer they park up at a popular dog walking area (reservoirs) but I don't ever buy anything unwrapped as I doubt they have washed their hands often enough.

We also have the single fire work signal round here, not that I'm a customer.

Undercover surveillance - I'd be worrying about your neighbours. Could they be up to something? Are you up to something?

Our i é cream van sometimes comes around at bizarre times like 4 o clock on a January afternoon. I'm conv it's drugs but don't know how to report and prove it.