HANDS OF STEAL
Tyson swipes US Open ice cream
Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson treated a Ben & Jerry’s kiosk at the US Open as his personal freezer — snagging an ice cream bar and strolling off without paying, sources told The Post.
And it was the Brooklynborn bruiser’s celebrity status and tough-guy image that prevented him from getting creamed by US Open officials for the chilling theft.
“I was like, ‘Are you serious? Am I imagining this?’ [Tyson] was like, ‘I feel like having an ice cream’ and he just took it,” said one stunned worker, adding, “What are you going to do, fight him? He’s Mike Tyson.”
Iron Mike (above) grabbed the $5.50 “Half Baked” ice cream bar from the stand (inset) inside Arthur Ashe Stadium as he walked through the Club Level area before Novak Djokovic took to Stadium Court to win his firstround match against Jerzy Janowicz in four sets.
The “Hangover” actor lifted the lid of the freezer stand, scooped out the chocolate-covered treat and strolled off without paying, the witnesses said.
The female worker behind the stand quickly called him out, yelling, “Excuse me, are you going to pay for that?” but Tyson, 50, just ignored her and kept walking, according to the witnesses.
The worker then asked her superior what she should do, but her boss seemed afraid to get mixed up with Tyson, saying, “Oh, it’s Mike Tyson, let it go,” said one witness.
After polishing off the ice cream, Tyson posed for pictures with singer Jewel and actor Alex Baldwin in the Presidential Suite overlooking Stadium Court as other celebs sat nearby, including Anna Wintour, Vera Wang and Debra Messing.
“It shows his character. He doesn’t seem bothered by what he did,” said another worker. “It doesn’t surprise me, though, given his back- ground. Mike Tyson is not the most upstanding citizen.”
Tyson’s publicist, Joann Mignano, characterized the incident as a simple “misunderstanding.”
“There was a misunderstanding,” she said. “Mike got the ice cream and was going to have the host pay for it as he was running around with his family. He was being pulled in a lot of directions as his daughter, Milan, is a rising tennis star and huge fan of the sport . . . His host, David Slade [of the US Tennis Association Foundation], got the money from Mike and has made sure the bill has been taken care of.”