A supermarket freezer malfunction that resulted in dozens of tubs of ice cream being piled up on a southside street caused Canberrans to lose their cool.
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Trolleys full of various brands of ice cream from Kingston IGA that appeared in the laneway behind the store were shared on social media and sparked a meltdown from sweet-tooths who fancied a free tub or two of Neapolitan.
Inner south residents hotfooted it to the carpark and and grabbed armfuls of boxed individual ice creams and punnets of creamy confections piled high in multiple trolleys and nearby dumpsters on Wednesday night.
They had to be quick, as even Canberra's chilly winter temperatures, which reached a top of 16 degrees but had dipped to 9 degrees by early evening, weren't enough to save some of the goods from melting beyond use.
Employee Helen Daskalakis said staff arrived at work on Monday morning to find the freezer section had broken down overnight, which meant they had to progressively clear the shelves and get rid of the affected stock.
"The freezers went down on Sunday night so when they came in on Monday, you can imagine, ice cream with no freezer, it's like milk."
The fridges were up and running again by Wednesday but workers spent the past couple of days gradually clearing the freezers of ice cream, chucking stock out near the dumpsters and restocking the shelves.
Ms Daskalakis said the shop had been inundated with phone calls and visits from customers in search of free ice cream after photos of the discarded frozen goods were shared on social media.
"My daughter saw it on Facebook," she said.
"People have been ringing and ringing, people are still ringing me wanting to go and collect it."
It wasn't the first time Canberrans have turned a loss of power into an opportunity to score some self serve ice cream.
The Canberra Times reported children found a surprising silver lining in the aftermath of a fire that ripped through the industrial section of The Causeway in December 1957.
Among the premises destroyed was the cold store of Peter's Ice Cream, as well as the company's insulated tanker.
"Peter's ice cream vendors were unable to operate yesterday, but many children at the fire on Saturday contrived to help themselves in the resultant chaos," one news report read.
