In a freezer at the Police Department in Lufkin, Tex., there is a half-gallon container of Blue Bell ice cream in an evidence bag — Exhibit A from a cringe-inducing video that drew widespread attention.

In the video, a teenage girl can be seen removing the tub of ice cream from a store freezer, lifting the lid, licking the top of the ice cream, then closing the lid and putting the container back before walking away.

Soon after the video was posted to Instagram, on June 28, social media erupted in shock and disgust. Some posted copycat videos on Twitter and others implored Blue Bell to use tamper-resistant foils under the lids of its ice cream tubs.

In an emailed statement, Blue Bell said it identified a Walmart in Lufkin, about 120 miles northeast of Houston, “as the store where the malicious act of food tampering took place.”

“Our staff recognized the location in the video, and we inspected the freezer case,” it continued.

The company, which has its headquarters in Brenham, Tex., said in the statement that “based on security footage, the location and the inspection of the carton, we believe we may have recovered the half gallon that was tampered with.”

“Out of an abundance of caution,” the company said, it removed that tub and all ice creams of the same flavor — Tin Roof — from the store. (That flavor features vanilla ice cream with chocolate fudge swirl and roasted peanuts dipped in dark chocolate.)

On Friday, the police in Lufkin found the girl, who is 17; they did not publicly identify her. Because of her age, charges, if any, would be handled by the juvenile justice system, a Police Department spokeswoman, Jessica Pebsworth, said.

“She has probably been living in fear of what was about to happen to her,” Ms. Pebsworth added.

Identifying the girl was made all the more difficult for the police by the number of imitators who quickly sprang up.

“On top of there being six women with similar names and appearances, we had a screen name within one letter of the suspect,” the spokeswoman said. That screen name turned out to be a catfish, or someone pretending to be the woman who licked the ice cream at Walmart.

The person behind the fake account claimed to have been sick earlier in the week and said that the ice cream should now be called “Flu Bell.” The person encouraged others to post videos of themselves licking unopened ice cream tubs to start an epidemic.

“The catfish did not even live in this country,” Ms. Pebsworth said, adding that the person “was the one that really just kind of provoked people that much more because of the statement of ‘I was sick last week.’”

Dr. Bruce E. Hirsch, an infectious diseases specialist at Northwell Health in Manhasset, N.Y., said on Saturday that the ice cream licking put others at risk.

There are many viruses that can be passed on through saliva, such as mononucleosis, he said.

The risk may have been partly diminished because of the ice cream’s low temperature and high sugar content, he said. Freezing could cause the water in bacteria to freeze and expand, destroying the bacteria, and sugar could leach water out of the bacteria, he said.

In a statement on Saturday, Blue Bell said, “Food safety is our top priority, and we work hard to provide a safe product and maintain the highest level of confidence from our consumers.”

“This case is now in the hands of the Texas Juvenile Justice Department to pursue however it deems appropriate,” it continued.

In 2015, Blue Bell Creameries recalled its ice cream over concerns of contamination by the potentially deadly bacteria listeria.

Later that year, Ariana Grande was caught on camera licking a doughnut at a Southern California bakery and walking out.

Ms. Grande apologized for the episode.

“Seeing a video of yourself behaving poorly — that you have no idea was taken — is such a rude awakening that, it’s like, you don’t know what to do,” she said. “I was so disgusted with myself.”

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