The BAD Humor Man

The ice cream truck is always a sign of summer for me. When I was growing up we used to listen for those bells ringing in the distance. When we heard them, we'd rush inside and beg Mom for money, then hurry out to meet the truck when it reached our street. It was one of the high points of any summer day.

Things aren't so innocent these days, I guess.

Police say they found a nearly empty pint bottle of vodka between the front seats of an ice cream truck after they pulled over the driver for swerving into the wrong lane.

Goshen Police Patrolman Jared Baer spotted the yellow-and-white van in a subdivision, after several motorists called Saturday to report the swerving vehicle in the city about 25 miles southeast of South Bend, police said.

The van was stopped, and the driver was selling ice cream to children, so Baer waited until Dennis D. Cogburn, 51, of Bowie, Texas, started up again.

Baer said he followed the van and pulled it over after Cogburn failed to signal turns and swerved into the wrong lane.

Cogburn failed field sobriety tests and was arrested on a preliminary charge of driving under the influence of alcohol.

Cogburn's blood alcohol level was three times the state limit. I'm glad they got him off the street before he killed someone.