One does not simply lick ice cream and put it back in the grocery store freezer.
Police in Lufkin, Texas, say they’re in hot pursuit of a cold-hearted ice cream tamperer who went viral last month with her antics in the Walmart freezer aisle.
The woman was captured on video licking a tub of Blue Bell Ice Cream, then putting the lid back on and returning it to the freezer. The nine-second clip has been viewed more than 11 million times since it was posted to Twitter on June 29.
“What kind of psychopathic behavior is this?” user Optimus Primal wrote in a tweet with the clip.
Others reacted with shock and disgust to the blatant act of food tampering.
Police say they worked with Blue Bell to identify the location in the video as a Walmart store in Lufkin, a city halfway between Houston and Dallas.
Blue Bell identified the store on Wednesday afternoon and removed what’s believed to be the tainted ice cream immediately, according to a Facebook post by Lufkin Police and Fire. Police quickly followed up and identified the woman through surveillance video obtained from the store.
“Detectives believe they have the woman identified and the investigation is ongoing,” police said.
Police say they intend to file charges. The suspect’s name has not been released.
“Our biggest concern is consumer safety,” Lufkin Director of Public Safety Gerald Williamson is quoted as saying on Facebook. “In that regard we are glad to see the tainted product off the shelves.”
Blue Bell thanked customers for raising concerns about the video in a statement on the company’s website.
“Based on security footage, the location and the inspection of the carton, we believe we may have recovered the half gallon that was tampered with,” Blue Bell wrote in the statement. “Out of an abundance of caution, we have also removed all Tin Roof half gallons from that location.”
The company says it takes food tampering very seriously and will not tolerate tampering with its products.
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