INDIAN SHORES, Fla. – A 66-year-old Florida woman faces felony charges after police say she was caught on video adding saliva and mucus to ice cream, as well as urinating in the churning buckets the shop uses to make the frozen treats.
Jung Soon Wypcha faces charges of criminal mischief and tampering with consumer products after she was allegedly recorded on at least five occasions in Lu Lu’s Ice Cream and Candy Shop, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
Wypcha and her husband reportedly run the Indian Shores Food Mart next door. The convenience store is connected to the ice cream shop by a shared bathroom, the owner of Lu Lu’s, Paul Chiulli, told the paper.
“I guess she wasn’t liking that we were getting popular,” Chiulli said, speculating that she may have been angry about cars parking in the shared lot.
Chiulli and his wife have had to trash at least $2,000 worth of product as they brace for the possible financial fallout from the news. They were also forced to close the shop for several days while they cleaned.
“Stuff like this can ruin our business and can ruin our lives,” he told WFTS.
Surveillance cameras captured Wypcha using the bathroom with the door “wide open” on five occasions, according to the arrest affidavit. Without washing her hands, she walks over to a freezer of organic ice cream on June 17 and puts her hands in the containers, the affidavit says.
Video from another angle shows her her spitting into ice cream containers, as well as picking her nose and putting her hand in the ice cream, according to police.
Five days later, cameras allegedly recorded Wypcha urinating into the mixing buckets used to churn the homemade ice cream. Police say she then dumped the urine in a sink where ice cream bowls and utensils are washed.
“We feel like we just woke up in the middle of a war that we didn’t even know was going on,” the Chiullis told WFTS. “This is pretty scary. I never wanted to be famous and certainly not like this!!!”
Beyond cleaning Lu Lu’s and disposing of their product, the couple say they have cut off free access to the bathroom and their back room.
Wypcha was released Monday night after posting $55,000 bond.
