A woman has been arrested after licking groceries and other items at a supermarket in the United States.
According to the police, the officers were called to the Safeway supermarket following reports of a customer, named Jennifer Walker who had licked $1,800 worth of groceries amid the fears over the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus.
“When officers arrived on the scene, an employee informed them that she also held several pieces of jewelry and licked it then began to load her cart with merchandise from the store,” told the shopkeeper to the police.
Fiore said officers located the suspect, identified as Jennifer Walker, inside the store with a shopping cart full of items, including meat and liquor, which she had no means to purchase. Walker, 53, was arrested for felony vandalism and the merchandise had to be destroyed for fear of contamination.
She is scheduled to be arraigned on Thursday afternoon, the South Lake Tahoe Jail.
Federal officials have indicated that they would take threats of spreading coronavirus seriously. The Department of Justice said last month that people who intentionally spread the virus could be charged with terrorism.
Also in March, a New Jersey man who police said purposely coughed on a grocery store employee and said he had coronavirus was charged with making “terroristic threats.”
In Missouri, a 26-year-old man was charged this week with making a terrorist threat after he was filmed in early March licking sticks of deodorant at a Walmart.