SF Gate – The Mr. Ding-A-Ling truck hadn’t been rolling through the streets here for more than a week before Joshua Malatino made his message clear: There ain’t enough Fudgsicles in this city for the both of us.
Malatino, who owns the homegrown Sno Cone Joe franchise, had threatened rival ice cream trucks before, but police said he went too far earlier this month. It began with threats and taunts.
“You don’t have a chance!” Malatino yelled to the 53-year-old Mr. Ding-a-Ling driver on one of his first days in Gloversville, according to court documents. “This is my town!”
It doesn’t matter what business you’re in, there’s always rivalry. I respect this guy for not letting Mr. Ding-a-Ling go right up on his turf without a fight. Gloversville, NY doesn’t have enough ice cream lovers for the both of them, someone’s gotta step up and take charge. Gotta love his commitment to the ice cream truck business, willing to risk facing up to three months in jail to make sure no one takes his popsicle sales, that’s showing pride in your product. Malatino knows he’s serving the best ice cream in town and isn’t gonna let some ding-a-ling chump come in and sell some shit flavored sundae. Well done on his part. The real a-holes in all of this are the police, it’s just friendly competition, it’s not like he assaulted him, Sno Cone Joe just harassed him a little here and there, just letting Mr. Ding-a-ling know that this was his town. Just let the boys play.
ps…I’d love to have Sno Cone Joe and Mr. Ding-a-Ling settle this in an old-fashioned monster jam type duel with their respective ice cream trucks…who ya got?