Man jailed for ice cream licking video

It surely seemed an ingeniously wacky stunt at the time, a comedic tour de force guaranteed to garner the approval of peers.

But a young Texas man dazzled by the allure of online popularity may now be regretting his actions after his screwball genius has put him behind bars.

D’Adrien Anderson of Port Arthur, Texas, was handed a 30-day jail sentence and 180 days probation Wednesday for a caper whose unsavory nature didn’t stop it going down a storm.

Last August the 24-year-old uploaded a peculiar video to Facebook. In it he calmly removes a tub of Blue Bell vanilla ice cream from the freezer section of a local Walmart, opens it, gives it a thorough licking, and then fingers it for good measure before closing the lid and putting it back on the shelf.

The filmed escapade, captioned “Happy national soft ice cream day”, certainly found an appreciative audience on the social media channel, with 172k views and 2.2k shares to date.

However, police were less than amused by the prankster’s revolting antics, even though store surveillance cameras showed Anderson eventually purchasing the contaminated tub.

Following his arrest for criminal mischief, the district attorney in the case noted that Walmart was forced to take the precaution of dumping its ice cream stock at “considerable cost,” the Port Arthur News reports.

Anderson, also known as “Dapper Don,”  had pleaded for the leniency of the probation, but the month-long jail term leaves him licking his wounds. He also has to pay a $1,000 fine and $1,565 in restitution to Blue Bell Creameries.

	Port Arthur, Texas
Location:	on the Gulf Coast, 90 miles east of Houston
Population:	55,018
Median Household Income:	$34,987
Quirky Fact:	Port Arthur is home to the Motiva refinery, the largest oil refinery in North America.