A California woman was arrested on Tuesday after she was caught licking and pocketing numerous items at a supermarket near Lake Tahoe.
The woman, identified as 53-year-old Jennifer Walker, had contaminated merchandise including meat and liquor at the Safeway supermarket.
South Lake Tahoe police was called to Safeway supermarket following reports of "a customer licking groceries" amid fears over the spread of the highly contagious novel coronavirus.
Chris Fiore, spokesman for the South Lake Tahoe police department, near the border with Nevada, told AFP, "When officers arrived on the scene, a Safeway employee informed them that the suspect put numerous pieces of jewellery from the store on her hands. The suspect licked the jewellery then began to load her cart with merchandise from the store."
The value of the goods contaminated by her was about $2,000 and as per officers who arrested her, she had no means to purchase the items she had hoarded on to her shopping cart after contaminating them.
Walker was arrested on suspicion of felony vandalism and has been booked into the El Dorado County jail.
Following the outbreak of the fast-spreading coronavirus, the police have had to deal with numerous cases of people contaminating items deemed essentials.
In March, police arrested a 26-year-old Missouri man after he posted a video on social media of himself licking deodorants at a Walmart in Warrenton in Virginia. He was charged with making a terrorist threat.
In another incident in March, a Pennsylvania woman was detained by the local police after she coughed intentionally on grocery items worth $35,000. The police took an evaluation of her mental health, post which, they concluded that she will be charged with intentional contamination after she is treated for her mental health condition.
