WTF: Free Coffee with Every Robbery

Source: Gawker.com

A Tennessee man didn’t get the cash he was after when he walked into a Huntsville, Alabama, Starbucks with the intention of robbing it, but he didn’t leave empty-handed either.

Police say that Sunday’s bizarre robbery attempt went down at 7:30 AM when Phillip Sawdey walked into the Starbucks.

Sawdey demanded money from the barista behind the counter. His plan to grab the cash and run were screwed up when the barista informed him that she was unable to open the cash register (other reports say that she refused to open the register) & instead offered him “a cup of coffee” instead.

Sawdey took his quick defeat well & took her up on the offer, accepting the beverage before leaving the store. He was caught by police in the parking lot & arrested for robbery without incident and booked into the Madison County Jail.

Coffee isn’t the only item some robbers have accepted in lieu of cash. One man allegedly accepted weed instead of money during a robbery attempt in 2011, according to the Corpus Christi Caller Times. And a worker at a Whataburger in Tulsa, Oklahoma, thwarted a machete-wielding robber by offering him fries, according to a 2010 report from the Tulsa World.

I have just ONE question, is Starbucks’ coffee that good (and expensive)?
I hope that was the best damn coffee he’s EVER had in his life, that’s all I’m saying.

Related articles

• SNL Imagines Talking Starbucks Verismo Coffee Makers That Provide the Complete Starbucks Experience at Home (laughingsquid.com)
• Everett baristas on alert after espresso stand robberies (q13fox.com)
• Starbucks Robbery Foiled When Would-be Robber Opts for Cup of Coffee In Lieu of Cash (gawker.com)

What’s Mine Is Yours Apparently

Want some?

So I’m at Starbucks minding my own business with my laptop on my lap as I’m leaning back on my chair, tilting it on an angle, with my back against the wall. I’m typing away on my laptop and I reach over to see that my drink, my Vanilla Bean Frappuccino, isn’t where it should be.

My white, frothy chilled drink has magically made its way into the mouth of this short, blonde, British girl who is wearing torn leggings under her jean skirt & has iPhone headphones in her ears.

You’re pretty. Is that my Grande in your mouth?

My drink is to my left, which is her right, while her drink is on her left. Our drinks look completely different & mine is a Grande, while hers is a Venti.

Hey I don’t mind sharing my goods, anyone that knows me knows this. I’m easy-going.

So she puts my drink down & I look at her & smile. We lock eyes & she smiles back at me for a second before she turns her attention back to her laptop. Hey I’m sure she doesn’t have Cooties or Mono, so I didn’t bother making an issue out of it.

Everything tastes better with you.

I get up & come back with a new straw & I put it in my drink. Yes, there are now 2 straws in the drink just in case she wants to act like we’re a couple & wants to continue getting to know me & my Grande. Weirder things have happened, I’ve experienced them.

She doesn’t even flinch as I do this. She doesn’t look up from her laptop. NOTHING.
Her phone vibrates & she answers it. She then shuts down her laptop while chatting away in her cute accent (what accent?). She takes her laptop & her drink as she leaves.

Let me repeat that, she takes HER laptop & HER drink as she leaves.

I watch her leave & I had to wonder, did she even realize what she had done?
Was she just trying to play it off or was she just completely absent-minded?

In the club I’d take that as an aggressive flirt, but in this case it comes off as an absent-minded “Flavor of the Week”.

Did you want something?

So here’s to me & my good taste!

What’s mine is yours. My drink, my attention & my number.

Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

Bottlecap Counseling 2

I swear these drinks have psychic ninjas invading my mind. I’ll explain next week.

Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

Writing On The Spot

Where do you do your best writing?

I do my best writing in bed at the end of the day, but inspiration hits me at any point in the day. Thanks to WordPress on Blackberry I can jot down any inkling of creativity or excitement as it happens (as my friends can attest to).

What the Starbucks Trenta Means for the Coffee World

Few things make a coffee man shudder like the notion of a mega 31-ounce coffee. If indeed there exists a shark to jump in the coffee world, the new Trenta is the great white. In fact, the more imaginative me envisions a large black dorsal fin mounted to the coffee chain’s monster sippy-lid and a leather-clad Arthur Fonzarelli water-skiing toward it on two large stir sticks. And I don’t even dislike Starbucks or the Fonz.

Why this reaction?

Along the path of perpetually improving quality, the escape route of family-size beverages isn’t one that delivers anyone to perfection. If you’re paying for a Starbucks coffee, perfection should be expected. What went wrong with those people at the green mermaid? Instead of striving for coffee nirvana — a goal they once set for themselves — they now opt for cheap beans from places like southern China and then hawk the brew in Costco-sized containers to a public that must (one hopes) see the foolishness in ingesting this kind of volume.

In the coffee world, love them or not, Starbucks was once cool. They single-handedly blazed a new trail for the rest of us in the craft to follow. This one, however — the Trenta — will find few followers, I’m afraid. I won’t be one. Instead, tonight I’ll drink a cool 40-ounce malt beer, eat at an all-you-can-eat shrimp-and-salad bar, and mourn the loss of cool in a once-visionary company.

 

What the Starbucks Trenta Means for the Coffee World.

Related Articles

• The New Starbucks Trenta Cup Is Bigger Than Your Stomach [Excess] (gizmodo.com)
• Starbucks Trenta: 31 Ounce Trenta Full Rollout In All Starbucks (nowpublic.com)
• 55 Unique Coffee Cups – Inspired by the 31-Ounce Starbucks Trenta (CLUSTER) (trendhunter.com)
• Trenta: Starbucks expands rollout of its 31-ounce drink (chron.com)