Ice Cream lick copycat decides he wants to be famous too, lands in lockup

Summer 2019 may be remembered for perhaps the most nauseating social media "challenge" ever and this man wanted his piece of fame for participating in it

Melanie Eversley

Jul 11, 2019

A man who copied a young woman’s viral video by licking a carton of ice cream at a store is finding out from jail that life can be cold.

Police in Assumption Parish, La., say Lenise Lloyd Martin III decided he would mimic the 17-year-old’s much-maligned act of grabbing a carton of ice cream out of a store freezer, opening it and licking it, and then posting video to Facebook, according to New Orleans station WWL. Now, not only is he internet famous, but he’s doubtless thinking long and hard about it from jail — where he’s been ever since the alleged incident occurred.

Warning: The following video contains disturbing images

While the unidentified young woman who is said to have started the #icecreamchallenge has reportedly been tracked down by authorities is being treated as a minor in East Texas, Martin is behind bars facing charges of criminal mischief for tampering with a product before purchase and “unlawful posting of criminal activity for notoriety and publicity.

In fact, Martin was surprised that he was arrested, Lonny Cavalier, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office in Assumption Parish, La., told The New York Times. “His explanation was, ‘All I wanted to do was be famous, and I paid for the ice cream.’ ”

Martin and the police don’t agree about whether he paid for the dessert.

Martin, 36, who is homeless, is spending extra time in jail because his arrest happened over the July 4th holiday weekend, and Wednesday was the earliest day he would be eligible to post bail, according to the Times.

His lawyer is complaining that police appeared to pull the charges out of a hat, using a little-used statute — the one involving video — in order to detain Martin.

“This is a highly aggressive arrest based on a seldom-used statute that is constitutionally questionable,” the lawyer, Franz Borghardt, told the Times.

The statute is too broad and potentially violates First Amendment rights, Borghardt said.

People in the community of Belle Rose, La., where Martin dared to lick ice cream from a carton, told the times they were not having it in their town.

Winston “Matt” Walters told the news organization that a customer came into Big B’s Supermarket, where he works, and told him about the Martin’s Facebook video. That’s when Walters took action.

“We called the law,” he said, adding that the prank prompted the store to throw out all of its ice cream.