An ice-cream seller has lost thousands of pounds after arsonists set two of his vans on fire.
Watch the ice-cream seller whose vans were set on fire
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50-year-old Tony Del Busso, also known as Mr. Cool, has claimed that his rivals set two of his vans on fire due to a feud over pitches in Hinkley, Leicestershire.
His Mr. Cool and Super Whippy vans outside his home were set on fire by his competitors on 18 July.
Tony and his wife Yvonne found the two of their vans burning on their driveway on Linsmore Drive, Hinkley after they woke up around midnight.
The fire also destroyed their garage, bedroom, and part of the roof. The couple claimed they have lost £70,000 due to the blaze.
Del Busso told SWNS: “It’s a long running family run business and nothing like this has happened before. We suspect because of the fact they targeted two ice-cream vans, it was something to do with competitors stopping us from trading.”
“There are numerous rivals, around three of four of them working on the same patch, but it never comes to aggression.point 311 |
Nine times out of ten you just accept somebody else got there first.point 56 | In busy periods it can get a bit heated but we rarely clash with each other.point 117 | ”point 120 | 1
“There are occasions where you turn up on the same road at the same time and your pitches overlap. Whether somebody has taken exception to that, I don’t know.”
“The vans were parked around 50ft away from each other, so they have deliberately targeted them and I can only think it was to reduce the competition.”
Del Busso’s father set up the ice-cream business in the late 1970s but the family says nothing like this ever happened to them.
Leicestershire Police are investigating the incident and urged everyone to contact them if they witnessed anything related to the incident.
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