No doubt, you’ve seen the viral video of the young woman in Texas who put the container back in the Walmart freezer after licking the ice cream. Turns out the police have seen it too. And the police being the police, they’ve uncovered the identity of the woman and are planning on arresting her on second-degree felony charges of food tampering, according to CBS News. The charges carry a sentence of two to twenty years behind bars.
What kinda psychopathic behavior is this?! pic.twitter.com/T8AIdGpmuS
— '91 Lorenzo (@BlindDensetsu) June 29, 2019
Blue Bell Ice Cream took action as soon as they were made aware of the incident. In a statement posted on their website, they assured their customers that “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. Out of an abundance of caution, we have also removed all Tin Roof half gallons from that location.”
Speaking to CBS News, Lufkin Police Department’s Director of Public Safety Gerald Williamson said, “We’re appalled that someone would do this. We take it incredibly seriously and we’re acting on it as the major crime that it is.”
Beyond just the charges they’ll be pursuing, the Lufkin Police Department has also reached out to the FDA about the possibility of the federal agency bringing charges.
While I’m sure that family and friends of this young woman will protest that Blue Bell, the Lufkin Police Department, and almost everyone else is overreacting, this is a serious crime and should be dealt with accordingly. That being said, I’m not a fan of sending someone to prison over something like this. If it were up to me, this woman and her accomplice would be sentenced to an inordinate amount of community service. Not only should they be punished, but the authorities also need to use them as an example to deter others. However, no one should have their life ruined over what they believed was a prank. Regardless of what you feel about the potential sentence facing this young woman, if you have kids, you should sit them down and explain why this type of thing is not an acceptable prank.
This story also raises the question as to why Blue Bell doesn’t seal the cartons of their ice cream somehow. Knowing human nature, I’m pretty sure that many more cartons of ice cream have been tampered with beyond just this one instance that went viral. It makes me thankful that I’ve ever eaten any of the company’s ice cream. This story also makes me think that until they change their packaging, I won’t ever eat Blue Bell Ice Cream.
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