RENO, Nev. – A woman in South Lake Tahoe was arrested Tuesday after she allegedly licked items in a Safeway grocery store, according to a release from the South Lake Tahoe Police Department.

The woman, 53-year-old Jennifer Walker, allegedly licked several pieces of jewelry for sale at the store and then put them on her hands. She then began to fill her shopping cart with $1,800 worth of merchandise.

Officers called to the scene determined Walker, a resident of South Lake Tahoe, had no means to pay for the items in her cart. A Safeway employee told the officers those items could no longer be sold due to "cross contamination," according to the release.

Amid the spread of COVID-19, there have been several incidents around the nation of people licking or purposefully contaminating items inside grocery stores, including an incident in Pennsylvania where a supposed "prank" caused a store to throw out $35,000 worth of product.

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California has reported more than 16,000 cases of COVID-19, according to Centers for Disease Control data. In Nevada, which directly borders South Lake Tahoe, cases have crested 2,300.

Walker was arrested and booked into El Dorado County Jail for felony vandalism.

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