Stavros Stathopoulos, known as Steve the Ice Cream Man in Queens, was hit with a fatal electric shock while working on a bathroom light fixture on Tuesday, sources said. (Courtesy Stathopoulos Family)
BY Andy Mai Rocco Parascandola John Annese
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Thursday, June 30, 2016, 5:01 AM
A beloved ice cream man was electrocuted while working on a bathroom light fixture in his Queens attic, police sources said Wednesday.
Stavros Stathopoulos, 69, was working in his 137th Rd. home in Rosedale on Tuesday afternoon when he was fatally jolted, sources said. Emergency personnel rushed him to Franklin General Hospital, where he died.
Sobbing as she spoke, Stathopoulos' wife, Ourania, said she tried to drag him away, only to get shocked herself.
“He went up to the bathroom to fix the light and he was so sweaty and that's the problem,” she said.
Known around Queens as “Steve the Ice Cream Man,” the immigrant from Greece drove a truck for 40 years before retiring in 2012.
His customers, who created a Facebook page about him, threw him a surprise party in 2015 after learning of his retirement, according to a DNAinfo report.
Stathopoulos started selling ice cream after coming to the United States, said his son-in-law, Spiros Dandouras, 46.
"That was his job when he first got to the States and started working in restaurants and then he got involved in the ice cream business, Dandouras said. “When you're an immigrant, you do what you need to do. ... He loved life, no day was the same for him.”
On Wednesday, dozens of people left condolences and posted on the “STEVE the Ice Cream Man” Facebook page.