A viral TikTok warned of a covert ICE immigration agent van. It was an ice-cream truck

Washington: 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.

He’s used to people taking pictures and videos of his 1985 van, which for years has been adorned with a mock police badge and his business’s name in bold letters: “ICE CREAM PATROL”.

The Las Vegas Ice Cream Patrol truck.

But on Friday morning, Settlemyers saw a TikTok video of his truck going viral for an unexpected reason. The video falsely claimed that the van, packed with 70 ice-cream flavours, was an undercover vehicle for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who were using music to lure people outside.

ICE has been directed to arrest at least 1200 immigrants a day under President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign, unnerving immigrant communities across the US.

The TikTok user who first drew attention to Settlemyers’s truck later apologised, as Las Vegas news channel KLAS first reported. But Settlemyers said he’s still concerned that someone who believes his truck is connected to federal law enforcement could attack or harass him while he’s driving. He doesn’t plan to change his van’s design, which he spent more than four years painting partly in hopes of deterring thieves.

“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 on January 20. There have also been some false alarms: leaders of a Chicago elementary school told families on Friday that ICE agents had tried to enter their building. Hours later, the Secret Service said those were actually its agents, there to investigate an alleged threat against a government official.

But Settlemyers said his ice-cream business, which he has run since 2016, has nothing to do with any of that. Instead, he said, he aims to evoke smiles.

His passion for ice-cream trucks began as a child in Memphis, where drivers wearing paper hats handed him his favourite treats: strawberry shortcake and Creamsicle ice cream bars. 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 $US700. He painted it black and white in part because he thought the colours, typically found on police cars, might prompt drivers to slow down when children were nearby and would prevent his truck from being robbed.

Settlemyers also wanted a design he had never seen, and while he has never worked in law enforcement, he thought a police theme would be unique. He drew a badge proclaiming “ICE CREAM PATROL” on the driver’s side of the van and wrote “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, and “LLC,” for limited liability company.

The passenger side looks almost like a typical ice-cream truck: there’s a large window and photos of dozens of ice-cream flavours on a white background. Writing near the wheels on both sides of the truck reads, “To Entice and Delight”, and yellow signs across the van’s exterior warn of children crossing the street. On the back, near a UNIT702 Nevada number plate, is another message: “Not Affiliated With ANY Law Enforcement Agencies”.

Nearly every day, Settlemyers said, he drives around his Summerlin community for a few hours. Other days, he said, he sponsors ice-cream events at local schools.

Some customers ask whether he has worked in law enforcement, Settlemyers said, and others take photos of the truck at traffic lights and petrol stations. But nobody had expressed fear about his truck until last week, he said. He woke up to a text from his 30-year-old daughter, Amber, about the widely shared TikTok on Friday.

“Please be on the lookout for ‘ice-cream’ trucks,” a caption on the video read, adding that “they even play music to get people to come outside”.

Settlemyers didn’t think much of the TikTok at first, but as his friends texted him throughout the day, he started worrying about his safety. For the first time, he noticed people peeking out of their windows and around corners when he drove through their neighbourhoods.

Despite his safety concerns, he said the attention had benefited his business. He normally gets about 50 customers a day but said he has had double that number recently.

“There’s always a silver lining to everything,” Settlemyers said. “More customers, make more people happy, I mean, that’s what I’m here for.”

The Washington Post

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