Ice cream truck service Frosty Treats happily touts church socials, birthdays, weddings and anniversaries on its Web site as a list of activities it specializes in. But judging from a recent federal court case, maybe it should add white slavery, too.
According to this release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Kansas City, Frosty Treats local branch manager David L. Carslake pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to obstruction of mail. Along with the plea agreement, Frosty Treats agreed to pay $47,555 to six foreign student workers recruited for a summer work program.
With his guilty plea, Carslake admitted that he withheld Social Security cards delivered to his office for some Russian and Eastern European summer workers – but that’s only the syrup on one evil snow cone.
Before striking a tasty plea agreement, the 55-year-old Carslake was named in a three-count federal indictment (read the details of the complaint here). According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Carslake and another manager, David Mackintosh, allegedly kept the students working 13-hour days, seven days a week, for about 87 cents an hour. If the students sold one strawberry crunch bar under quota, they could forget about reimbursement for gas money, the truck-rental fee or the truck deposit. So at the end of the day, the driver could owe the company money. On top of that, Frosty Treats allegedly withheld $225 per month from each of the students, telling them it was rent money for the one-bed, one-bath units that were being shared by six students.
Oh, and in case they tried to make a break for it, the students were told that their van – provided for transport only between the apartment and Frosty Treats – was outfitted with a hidden global positioning tracker. Maybe hidden under the SpongeBob SquarePants Bars. Also, they were allowed no mailbox keys or telephones in their apartment.
U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman Don Ledford says he’s not sure what’s happened to the students since their imprisonment at Frosty Treats, but he did say there were several other students in the program besides the six named in the case.
This might clear things up for anyone who bought a snow cone in the summer of 2005 who’s still confused about the note begging for a helicopter, gas mask and hacksaw scratched on the napkin. – Peter Rugg
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when I first read about these indictments, I had the same feeling I got back in the days when my parents were shuffling our family around Arkansas from teaching job to teaching job because we didn't belong to 'the right church.' Now that the courts and the justice department are used to promote the political fashion of the day (which is cook up a case against anything that might possibly encourage a right-wing fundamentalist to vote for the current version of the Republican party), I did some research. The money borrowed from their parents didn't go to Frosty treats. it paid for air fare, cost of Visa (what? the federal gov't charges foreign nationals for their student VISA? I'm shocked!). I wonder if one of the Russian employees was the ice cream guy who drove around Lees Summit with no shoes, no shirt, and wouldn't get out of the drivers' seat to sell ice cream. Gee, if I would have been that guy's boss, he would have gotten yelled at, too. People all over the neighborhood wondered if that guy had stolen the truck. Barbed wire on top of a fence? Why would any business located in the 31st & Troost area need to secure their fleet with fences? Surely no one in that area locks up their trucks behind barbed wire at night. Right? C'mon Pitch - why don't you of all journalists take on the gov't forces behind this charade of trumped-up charges? I am tired of reading so-called independent journalists who never seem to demand the evidence or do any common-sense fact-checking. Anybody can write a complaint. How much did the FBI pay their informant? What hard evidence did the gov't ever produce? Whose employer allows personal use of company computers? since when did it become a crime to prohibit that? The place I work FIRES people for that all the time. And who in their right mind thinks that anyone with access to a truck full of stuff you can SELL for CASH wouldn't be able to drive away? I've read about ice cream trucks from the U.S. being driven into Mexico. I have heard of stolen ice cream trucks stopped when trying to drive across the Canadian border. I am not asking for much - just some basic journalistic inquiry. You're plog seems to be repeating the U.S.Dept of Justice press release, & calling it journalism. Just once, try a little research. Google a bit, visit the library, learn the issues before you try to write the story. Or are you afraid that after the DoJ gets tired of breaking ACORN and independent businesses, they might come after the press?
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