Police: Business Rival Tampered With Ice Cream

JULY 9--A rival business owner spit, picked her nose, and urinated into containers at an ice cream parlor next door to the Florida food market she operates, according to police.

Investigators allege that Jung Soon Wypcha, 66, was caught on videotape engaging last month in a series of vile acts at Lu Lu’s Ice Cream shop in Indian Shores, a town about 20 miles west of St. Petersburg.

Wypcha, who runs the Indian Shores Food Mart, was arrested yesterday and charged with tampering with consumer products and criminal mischief, both felonies.

Pictured at right, Wypcha was released late last night from the Pinellas County jail after posting $55,000 bond.

Wypcha, cops say, ruined more than $2000 worth of ice cream, forcing the shop’s owners to close for several days. According to a complaint affidavit, Wypcha was caught in the act on multiple days last month.

On June 17, she was recorded using the shop’s bathroom “with the door wide open on five separate occasions.” After failing to wash her hands, Wypcha proceeded to a freezer holding organic ice cream and “puts her hands into the ice cream containers.” She was also allegedly recorded picking her nose and then placing her hands into the ice cream, as well as “opening the freezer door and spitting into the ice cream containers.”

On June 22, Wypcha sought to use the shop’s bathroom, but found it locked. She then allegedly urinated in a bucket used to churn Lu Lu’s homemade ice cream. Wypcha subsequently emptied the bucket into a sink used to wash the “ice cream folding utensils and mixing bowls.”

The ice cream shop has reopened and its owners believe that Wypcha targeted the business due to a fear of competition. (1 page)