Blue Bell ice cream licker in viral video has been found, police say

In a freezer at the Police Department in Lufkin, Texas, there is a half-gallon container of Blue Bell ice cream in an evidence bag — Exhibit A from a cringe-inducing video that drew widespread attention.

In the video, a teenage girl can be seen removing the tub of ice cream from a store freezer, lifting the lid, licking the top of the ice cream, then closing the lid and putting the container back before walking away.

Soon after the video was posted to Instagram, on June 28, social media erupted in shock and disgust. Some posted copycat videos on Twitter and others implored Blue Bell to use tamper-resistant foils under the lids of its ice cream tubs.

In an emailed statement, Blue Bell said it identified a Walmart in Lufkin, about 120 miles northeast of Houston, “as the store where the malicious act of food tampering took place.”

“Our staff recognized the location in the video, and we inspected the freezer case,” it continued.

The company, which has its headquarters in Brenham, Texas, said in the statement 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,” the company said, it removed that tub and all ice creams of the same flavor — Tin Roof — from the store. (That flavor features vanilla ice cream with chocolate fudge swirl and roasted peanuts dipped in dark chocolate.)

On Friday, the police in Lufkin found the girl, who is 17; they did not publicly identify her. Because of her age, charges, if any, would be handled by the juvenile justice system, a Police Department spokeswoman, Jessica Pebsworth, said..

Identifying the girl was made all the more difficult for police by the number of imitators who quickly sprang up.

“On top of there being six women with similar names and appearances, we had a screen name within one letter of the suspect,” the spokeswoman said. That screen name turned out to be a catfish, or someone pretending to be the woman who licked the ice cream at Walmart.

Dr. Bruce E. Hirsch, an infectious-diseases specialist at Northwell Health in Manhasset, New York, said Saturday that the ice cream licking put others at risk.

There are many viruses that can be passed on through saliva, such as mononucleosis, he said.