If it wasn’t so serious, Philip Hanson would smile about it.
After all, what good’s an ice-cream man who has lost his ding-a-ling?
But the Huddersfield man is far from happy after thieves targeted his one-man business for a SEVENTH time and stole the musical equipment that provides his van with its chimes.
He even saw the pair running away with the equipment but despite his efforts, and those of a police dog-handler, the thieves got away with the sound equipment worth almost £800.
Philip, 56, of Dalton Bank Road, Colnebridge, discovered the theft at midnight on Tuesday when he went out to check the freezer on his ice-cream van was working.
He has run the business, Fil’s Ices, for 34 years and sells his wares in Birkby, Newsome, Primrose Hill and Holmfirth.
“I’m a one-man band but I have a good clientele.
“I was about to go to bed and went out to check on the freezers when I noticed two people near the van.
“They saw me coming and legged it down the road, carrying what turned out to be the amplifier and sound equipment for my chimes.
"I tried to follow them but lost them.
“They had used a screwdriver to force the driver’s door and then took the equipment from the back.
“I think the chimes were stolen to order: they are no good to anyone else. Sadly, it’s not the first time. Thieves got in just around Christmas and stole boxes of chocolate and my till, which was a vintage one.
“I had been done five times previously, with people stealing boxes of sweets and odd things.
“An ice-cream man needs his chimes to let people know he’s coming down the street. Luckily a friend of mine, Joseph Longo, has an ice-cream business and he has kindly offered to help me out”.
Police brought in a dog to help search for the thieves but after following them down Dalton Bank Road and into Bog Green Lane, the trail went cold.
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