Blue Bell Ice Cream Licker Identified!

Gross, right?

Blue Bell, the company that made the ice cream, immediately reacted to the viral video. 

Upon identifying the store the act was done at, they instructed employees to pull all of the flavor of ice cream the teen had licked from the freezer in order to ensure that some unwitting customer would not purchased the tampered ice cream.

The act was taken seriously and handed over to the police, who have now identified the minor who committed the crime, which has a punishment of up to 20 years in prison!

Take a look at this trending news of justice on Twitter:

However, it appears that police have decided not to press charges against the girl because she is underage:

CBS News has more details on the Blue Bell ice cream licker case:

Police in Lufkin, Texas, have identified a juvenile who was seen licking a tub of Blue Bell ice cream in a now-viral video. The juvenile could be seen licking the ice cream at a local Walmart before putting it back into the freezer. 

Detectives have spoken with the suspect, who is from the San Antonio area. Police announced Friday that they would not be releasing her name publicly because she's a minor. 

The case will now be turned over to the Texas Juvenile Justice Department, Jessica Pebsworth, a spokesperson with the Lufkin Police Department said.
 
Before the suspect was identified as a juvenile, police said she could have faced up to 20 years in prison. They had planned on arresting her on a charge of second-degree felony tampering.

The New York Times also had the following to say:

In a freezer at the Police Department in Lufkin, Tex., 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, Tex., 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.

“She has probably been living in fear of what was about to happen to her,” Ms. Pebsworth added.

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

Although the girl was caught and has since apologized for her actions, the repulsive joke seems to have spawned a new wave of copycats, as this Twitter user pointed out:

For instance, take this stomach-churning clip of a transgender gargling mouthwash then putting it back that is currently going viral:

Or this video of a boy who calls himself "GayShawnMendes" on Twitter scooping out handfuls of ice cream then putting it back:

That last video seems to have gotten the boy in it in trouble as well, as it was followed up with another clip of a police officer:

We can only hope this "trend" doesn't catch on anymore than it already has and that perpetrators of food tampering are held accountable for their actions....

However, the fact that the original girl who licked the Blue Bell ice cream has escaped charges might make other minors more prone to tampering with food as a sick joke to get online fame.

What do you think? 

Did she get off too easy?