It all started with a video of a teenage girl licking a carton of Blue Bell ice cream in a store — and then putting it back on the shelf. The video, which went viral under the hashtag #icecreamchallenge, grossed out a nation and struck fear in the hearts of ice cream lovers everywhere.

Now the authorities and store owners across the country are wrestling with how to stop a series of copycat videos made by people committing the same crime.

Investigators in East Texas, where the first video originated, tracked down the girl, but turned the case over to the Texas Juvenile Justice Department because she’s a minor. Then on Saturday, the police in Louisiana arrested a man who posted a video on Facebook of himself licking a carton of ice cream in a supermarket, even though he produced a receipt showing that he actually purchased the ice cream afterward.

Lenise Lloyd Martin III, a 36-year-old unemployed man, has been in jail ever since.

Lonny Cavalier, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office in Assumption Parish, said Mr. Martin appeared surprised to be arrested.