The owners of an ice cream shop in Ocala, Fla., thought they could lure customers by hiring someone to stand outside dressed in an ice cream cone costume.

The outfit, a cone-like body topped by a pointed white hood, was doing just the opposite -- driving people away, WTSP reports.

That's because a lot of passersby thought the actor was wearing a Ku Klux Klan outfit.

One woman called the shop crying because she was afraid to cross the street at that corner, WTSP says.

The owners of Ice Cream Family Corner and Sandwiches say they had no idea about the mistaken identity and have packed the costume away in a storage room.

"We were just trying to get people to come in," says store employee Jasmine Gonzalez.

The Ocala Star-Banner cuts right to the heart of the issue: "Once and for all, people, it's an ice cream cone."

The newspaper says Liza Diaz, manager of the store, is from Puerto Rico and had never heard of the KKK white supremacist group.

Tom McNiff, the paper's managing editor, writes, "She can't even quite get her tongue around the name, referring to the white supremacist group as the 'Ku Ku Klan' without a hint of irony or sarcasm."