Copycat Blue bell ice cream licker, Lenise Lloyd Martin III arrested in Assumption, Louisiana after weekend grocery stunt. Seeking notoriety on social media.
It’s official. It is now a fad. A copycat inspired by a viral video showing a teen licking a tub of ice cream before putting it back on the shelf has been arrested for a similar stunt, Louisiana police said.
Lenise Lloyd Martin III, 36, was arrested by Assumption Parish sheriff’s deputies on Saturday after being filmed opening a carton of Blue Bell ice cream from a freezer, licking it, poking his finger into the frozen treat and putting it back on a shelf, WAFB reports.
The latest incident of consumers unabashedly misbehaving and posing potential health risks to other shoppers allegedly occurred at a grocery store in Belle Rose, west of New Orleans.
Video shows (see below) a smiling Martin playfully looking around after taking his first unauthorized taste. Martin then sneaks a second lick after jabbing his finger into the ice cream and looking into the camera before placing it back into a freezer.
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‘We discourage anyone from copying this atrocious act,’ a sheriff’s office spokesman told via WAFB. ‘It is illegal. It’s a health risk to others. We will pursue anyone we see do this. You will be charged.’
Martin was arrested after deputies were tipped off after video Martin posted video made the rounds on Facebook, public information officer Lonny Cavalier told CNN.
Martin later showed detectives a receipt for the ice cream, suggesting that he ultimately paid for his contaminated confection — but Cavalier said the purchase still did not clear him of wrongdoing.
‘Taking into consideration that he eventually purchased the same container is one thing,’ Cavalier told CNN. ‘However, he puts it on Facebook to gain this notoriety and at the end of the day, it gives other people ideas that are not the best interest of public health.’
Martin faces charges of unlawful posting of criminal activity for notoriety and publicity and criminal mischief, jail records show. A judge was expected to set his bail during a court appearance Monday.
Cavalier said Martin is believed to have been inspired by the teen who was identified by cops on Friday for licking a tub of Blue Bell ice cream and putting it back in a freezer at a Walmart in Texas on June 28.
The teen, whose viral video generated millions of views, could have faced up to 20 years in prison, but police said they would not press charges because she’s a minor.
Deputies in Assumption Parish are leaving little to chance and have since declared the full weight of the law against other potential copycats, saying anyone who mimics the ice cream raiders will be prosecuted ‘immediately and with the full extent of the law’.
