ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Viral ice cream, a Chinese frozen dessert, is the new food craze to flood social media.

But could this cold treat turn into the next hot thing on the black market? Ric Martinelli thinks so. He co-owns Pop Pop’s Italian Ice in Albuquerque near San Mateo Boulevard and Academy Road. He said it’s one of two stores in the metro selling the viral ice cream.

“People were coming in asking for them, calling from all over the state making sure we had them, asking if we could save them,” Martinelli said.

Friday morning those snacks attracted more than just fans and social media influencers. Surveillance video shows two people in the store after 2 a.m. clearing the shelves.

“They took a whole freezer full of the ice creams, rolled it out the door, looked like they broke in the front door by hitting it with a baseball bat,” he said.

They got away, but apparently not with enough. Martinelli said the thieves then hit up the other shop selling the ice cream, Monaco Market on Wyoming and Montgomery Boulevard.

“Tore the front door off the building with the stolen truck, the chain with the stolen truck and also stole a freezer there too of the ice creams,” Martinelli said.

Those ice creams aren’t cheap. They sell for $17 a pop. Martinelli said he’s out about $8,000. He’s asking people to help him get the scoop.

“We just ask people to pay attention to flea markets, different things on Facebook, different groups on Facebook because you know we were one of the very few that would have had these ice creams,” he said.