Rapper and celebrity Vanilla Ice has been charged with burglary and grand theft in connection to a home burglary in Lantana, Florida, adjacent to where he was renovating a home for his reality show The Vanilla Ice Project. The police have confirmed the news according to local reports.
During the incident, Vanilla Ice, real name Robert Van Winkle, reportedly burglarized the home, which is being foreclosed upon and took furniture, a pool heater, bicycles and other items. The incident took place at some point between December and February.
According to Variety, during an investigation into the burglary, authorities obtained and executed a search warrant on the "Ice Ice Baby" rapper's residence in Palm Beach and found several of the stolen items there. It was determined that he "played a role" in the crime and the items have since been returned to their rightful owner.
2009 saw Vanilla Ice start paving his way back into the public eye — kind of. He launched his own series titled The Vanilla Ice Project on the DIY Network where he finds beat up homes and renovates and remodels them to look like new for prospective homeowners. The series has put him back in the public conscious somewhat and given him book deals and speaking engagements.
He is still releasing some music, most notably in 2011 his sixth studio album W.T.F. (Wisdom, Tenacity and Focus). He will need all of that to get through this unscathed.
According to XXL, Van Winkle has denied the widely reported story that Suge Knight, who is also embroiled in legal troubles of his own, once dangled Ice by the ankles off of a high-rise in order to obtain a larger publishing split.
