Police arrested a Northern California woman after she allegedly licked and ruined about $1,800 worth of groceries near the Nevada border, authorities said Wednesday.
Officers were called to a Safeway in South Lake Tahoe on Tuesday over a “report of a customer ‘licking’ groceries inside of the store,” police said.
Jennifer Walker, 53, was taken into custody and booked on suspicion of felony vandalism.
“The employee informed the officers that all the items in the suspect’s shopping cart were deemed unsellable due to the cross-contamination,” according to a South Lake Tahoe police statement.
Items that needed to be destroyed included costume jewelry, meat and liquor, police said.
Walker has no local arrest record, but “we’ve had local contact with her, we’re familiar with her,” said South Lake Tahoe police Lt. Shannon Laney, who declined to reveal the nature of Walker’s previous dealings with police, citing medical privacy laws.
Walker remained in custody Wednesday in lieu of $10,000 bond, according to El Dorado County jail records. It wasn’t immediately clear if Walker had an attorney.
