Even for south Tulsa, with 400 crystal meth labs and counting this year, stirring up a batch on a Wal-Mart shelf in the middle of Christmas shopping was a new low.

“This one was surprising, even for us,” Tulsa police spokesman Officer Jason Willingham told the Star on Monday.

“She was mixing it right there on a shelf.”

Methamphetamine labs, including “one-pot” operations to mix up small batches for individual use, are “plaguing our city and our state,” said Willingham. The Oklahoma department maintains a city map plotting meth lab busts, which are at a record 400 this year.

The latest, though, wasn’t so much a lab as an off-the-shelf operation involving lithium and drain cleaner taken from Wal-Mart shelves and mixed together over a period of six hours on Thursday. Although the mixture didn’t contain the active ingredient pseudoephedrine, it was corrosive enough to burn through the rubber glove of one Tulsa officer, Willingham said.

“They have in-house security but I guess they just didn’t notice it,” said Willingham.

It’s the third meth lab incident around the E. 81st St. discount store in recent months. In October, a man was arrested on theft charges after a mini-meth lab was found in his backpack, said Willingham.

Alisha Halfmoon, 45, remained in custody Monday on a $100,000 bond. She is scheduled to appear in court Dec. 16.

She told the local Fox TV reporter as she was arrested out the Wall-Mart: “I wasn’t trying to make meth.”

Read more about: