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Wilmette Strip Mall Booting Cars Of People Going To Dairy Queen Next Door

(CBS) -- Tension between two north suburban businesses is giving new meaning to the term "ice-cream headache."

The owner of a strip mall next to the Dairy Queen on Lake Avenue in Wilmette is booting anyone who parks in his lot to go next door for ice cream.

"If you want to leave, you have to get the boot off, and to get the boot off they are charging you $130," said Dairy Queen owner Bill Ridge.

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Ridge says they have been serving up cones for 50 years and people have been parking there that long but it's time to change.

"I put signs in my window saying please don't park over there and it's a new paradigm and we have got to adjust to it and try and make the best of it," Ridge said.

The mall owner did bend a little, saying he won't boot cars parked after 9 p.m., but he will the rest of the day, which raises the question: Is a Dairy Queen cone worth $130?

"I would never say that," Ridge said. "I think that that is a little over the top for an ice cream cone."

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