Stupid internet stunts have consequences
Texas-based Blue Bell ice cream is delicious.
Apparently, too delicious to resist for a teen girl in Lufkin, Texas, who was identified by authorities July 5, after a video went viral of the girl opening up a half-gallon of “Tin Roof,” taking a big lick of the ice cream, and placing it back into a Walmart freezer. The video — which had more than 12 million views that day — showed her laughing as she returned the bespoiled treat.
Gross.
Lufkin cops identified and spoke to the girl, said a report in the Houston Chronicle July 5. As a juvenile offender, her identity is protected under section 58.104 of the Texas Family Code. Lufkin cops turned the case over to the Texas Juvenile Justice Department.
Tampering with a consumer product is a second-degree felony in Texas, with a punishment range of two to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000, according to the Texas penal code.
FDA and federal charges may also be pending, police said.
Blue Bell had to remove all half gallons of Tin Roof from the store. The concoction is vanilla ice cream with a rich chocolate fudge swirl and roasted peanuts dipped in dark chocolate. Except at that store, in this case, it’s just garbage.
Naturally, and unfortunately, within the last few days there have been other idiots posting pictures of themselves doing similar idiot things with ice cream. And the disgusting trend is now spreading — one Reddit thread shows a woman opening a beverage bottle, taking a swig, and putting it back on the shelf; other posters wrote of people sampling deodorants before returning them to the display.
It’s somewhat reminiscent of pop star Ariana Grande’s 2015 stunt where she was captured licking a doughnut in a Southern California shop before returning it to the display, and then saying to a companion “What the (expletive) is that? I hate Americans. I hate America.”
Way back when, ice-cream servers who worked behind drugstore counters were called “soda jerks.” These people have the “jerk” part down.
As a juvenile, the Texas girl will probably get a second chance. But we wonder why people would find this sort of stupid stunt anything but abhorrent, and how they ever thought that it might be in any way acceptable.
The copycats from the ice cream stunt aren’t funny. There’s youthful indiscretion, and there’s terrible parenting, and terrible people. These people are, in essence, stealing. To that extent, legal liabilities should be pursued in every case.