Ice Cream Truck Driver Lied About Armed Robbery: Police

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CANTON, GA -- A 30-year-old driver of an ice cream truck has been charged with fabricating a story in which he was robbed at gunpoint while sitting in a parking lot.

Detectives with the Cherokee Sheriff's Office have charged Joseph Heath Wade of Canton with false report of a crime and giving a false statement after he told police he was robbed at gunpoint on Monday.

Lt. Jay Baker, spokesperson with the sheriff's office, said Wade allegedly reported to deputies he was robbed at gunpoint by "four black males while sitting in his ice cream truck at a church parking lot on Reinhardt College Parkway in Canton."

Wade allegedly told police that between $500 and $600 was stolen, money he claimed to be proceeds from ice cream sales.

Investigators reached out to the owner of the ice cream company, and learned a large amount of ice cream was missing from the truck Wade was tasked with driving and that the Canton resident had been fired from the company earlier in the week, the sheriff's office said. 

Baker said while detectives were interviewing Wade, he admitted he made up the story about the robbery and "claimed the missing money was used to pay the drug debt of another person."

Wade was booked into the Cherokee County Adult Detention Center where he remains with a $12,200 bond.

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Photo: Joseph Heath Wade. Credit: Cherokee Sheriff's Office