The video of the woman licking the tub of ice cream racked up over 11 million views in less than a week. Photo / Twitter
The video of the woman licking the tub of ice cream racked up over 11 million views in less than a week. Photo / Twitter
Police say they have identified a woman seen in a viral video licking a tub of ice cream before replacing it in a Walmart supermarket freezer in Texas.
A short video posted to Twitter on the weekend quickly went viral, after it showed a woman licking the top of a full Blue Bell ice cream tub, before resealing it and stuffing it back into the freezer.
A man, apparently filming the video, appeared to be egging the woman on and can be heard saying, "lick it, lick it, lick it."
The man then urges the woman to "put it back!" as she laughs loudly as she reseals the "Tin Roof" flavoured ice cream and shoves it back into the supermarket freezer.
The nine second video was posted to Twitter with the caption, "What kinds psychopathic behaviour is this?!" and quickly went viral. Since Saturday it has attracted over 11 million views and over 27,000 retweets, news.com.au reports.
The video attracted a huge amount of outrage and disgust, with users online calling for the ice cream tub to be located, and the woman to be charged for food tampering.
Police released vision of a woman they believe is the ice cream tamperer, captured on Walmart CCTV. Photo / Facebook
"This not funny in the least! She needs to be charged … especially (because) this likely prompts others to behave ignorantly for 'hits'," one woman commented.
"I don't know if she's more gross for doing it, or stupid for letting someone take a video and post it," another person commented.
"This why you should never grab front row products," another commenter said. "Always three or four rows back."
Following the incident, Blue Bell responded saying they were working directly with local law enforcement to investigate the incident. In tweets, the company referred to it as "food tampering".
Earlier today, Lufkin Police in Texas released an update on the case, along with a CCTV image of the alleged ice-cream licker walking through a shopping centre with a man.
Police say they believe they have identified the woman in the viral video, and they intend to charge her.
The video of the woman licking the tub of ice cream racked up over 11 million views in less than a week. Photo / Twitter
The search for the tainted ice cream container involved a co-ordinated effort between Blue Bell, who manufacturer the ice cream, and a number of local police districts, Lufkin Police said.
They got two tip offs for San Antonio and Houston, but both turned up nothing. A final tip off from Blue Bell itself, based on the store's merchandising, led police to a Walmart in Lufkin, Texas.
Here they were able to retrieve the tainted ice cream tub from the freezer.
Police then quickly obtained CCTV, from the store on June 28, showing the woman they believe to be the same woman in the viral video.
Appropriate charges will be filed, according to Lufkin Director of Public Safety Gerald Williamson.
"Our biggest concern is consumer safety — in that regard we are glad to see the tainted product off the shelves," Mr Williamson said.
"We are recommending that as a precaution Blue Bell remove products from the Lufkin Walmart shelves until our investigation is complete."
Blue Bell released their own statement, saying the store where the "malicious act of food tampering" allegedly occurred had been identified.
"Our staff recognised the location in the video, and we inspected the freezer case," a statement from Blue Bell said.
"We found a Tin Roof half gallon that appears to have been compromised. 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."
The company have removed every Tin Roof flavoured tub of ice cream from that store as a precaution.
"Food tampering is not a joke, and we will not tolerate tampering with our products," the company added.
