A Facebook prank landed an East Texas man in county jail after he allegedly opened a gallon of Blue Bell ice cream, licked it, and returned it to the shelf. While he accomplished his goal of a viral video, the prank has cost him criminal charges and his job.
A Facebook video earlier this week shows a man opening a gallon of Blue Bell ice cream, licking the ice cream, closing it up, and placing it back on the shelf. Police began investigating and identified the Walmart store in Port Arthur, Texas, as the incident location. Surveillance video showed the man eventually took the ice cream back out of the freezer and paid for it, the Associated Press reported.
Despite this, Jefferson County District Attorney Bob Wortham filed misdemeanor criminal mischief charges after the Walmart store was forced to re-stock their ice cream shelves in case of other contamination. Police identified the suspect as 24-year-old D’Adrien Anderson, a Port Arthur resident, and place him in the Jefferson County Correctional Facility. He eventually posted a bond of $1,000 and was released.
“This is a guy who believes the universe goes around him, he’s the center of it,” Wortham told 12News. The district attorney said Anderson will have a lot of restitution to pay.
Anderson’s father told the Associated Press his son was just trying to get Facebook likes. At press time on Saturday, Anderson’s video received 337 reactions, 1,800 comments, and 2,200 shares.
Another video posted on Anderson’s Facebook page two days before the Blue Bell incident shows him harassing Walmart shelf stockers and customers by reaching over them to get products.
12News asked Anderson if he regretted the ice cream licking incident after he was released from the county jail. “Yeah, of course I do,” he responded.
He later published another video where he says, “I love your ice cream #bluebell plz don’t ban me from buying it #im#sorry.”,
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.