Florida woman charged for spitting into ice cream containers and urinating into churner forcing store to close for days
According to a police affidavit, a St. Petersburg woman was arrested after she forced an ice cream shop to close for days by spitting, urinating, and picking her nose into containers, thereby destroying an estimated $2,000 worth of ice cream in the process.
66-year-old Jung Soon Wypcha was arrested on Monday on charges of criminal mischief and tampering with consumer products after Indian Shores police scoured through three days worth of CCTV footage at Lu Lu's Ice Cream Shop, the New York Post reports.
According to owner Paul Chiulli, the ice cream store had to be closed for four to five days while the ice cream itself had to be destroyed for public safety. The affidavit states the store finally reopened about a week ago.
Chiulli revealed that Wypcha runs Indian Shores Food Mart next door, and that the two establishments share a bathroom.
“I guess she wasn’t liking that we were getting popular,” he said.
While Wypha is yet to respond to a request for comment, the arrest affidavit gives the following account:
Wypcha used the shared bathroom on June 17 and left the door ajar five times. She allegedly did not wash her hands after using the facilities and went straight for the organic ice cream freezer, where she dug her hands into the ice cream containers.
Surveillance footage also showed the 66-year-old picking her nose before putting her hands in the product and later spitting into the containers.
The following day, Wypcha tried to open an ice cream freezer but failed as it was locked.
Then, on June 22, the business owner found the bathroom door locked and so decided to urinate in a bucket used to churn the product.
She later emptied the bucket in a washbasin where ice cream utensils are generally washed and then placed her hands inside the freezer once again.
According to reports, Wypcha was released Monday night in lieu of bail set at $50,000 for the tampering charge and $5,000 for the criminal mischief charge.