A friendly heads-up for the Asshole Americans; everything is too expensive and pay is too low for service workers to keep taking your crap. Case in point, this woman who smashed a “customer’s” windshield after he threw drinks at her and threatened her.
Emma Lee owns Taste of Heaven Espresso, a drive-up coffee joint in Seattle. The customer who attacked her is a regular who’d been particularly rude before. She even went so far as giving the guy a discount on his order in the past to avoid his ire. In this interaction, he was angry about the price of a coffee and a water and the regular two dollar discount he received wasn’t cutting it, according to Fox 13:
“You don’t get to name your own price,” Lee recounted, explaining the incident. She also took the customer’s words personally when he said, “Nobody is going to miss you.”
Lee explained the customer ordered a 32-ounce coffee and a 24-ounce water, which totaled about $22. She often tries to defuse these situations by charging him an even $20, but this time, she claims the customer insisted on paying less than the cost.
“No one is forcing you to come here,” Lee said. “The argument that he didn’t know or was scammed doesn’t hold up. The prices are listed,” she said.
The argument escalated when the customer backed up his car, got out, and became more aggressive.
“It was a threat after screaming, spitting, and trying to pry open the window, I felt in danger,” Lee said.
Once the customer tossed his apparently unacceptably expensive coffee and water at Lee, she’d had enough. She brought out a hammer, leaned out of her service window and did some fairly significant damage to the man’s windshield in a move that must have been as cathartic for her to complete as it is for anyone who has ever worked a drive thru to watch.
“Women are allowed to respond when there’s danger in ways other than crying,” Lee told NBC News. Hell yes sister. The customer is now banned from Taste of Heaven Espresso and Lee is pressing charges for assault.
Lee says police are more concerned with protecting her safety than with the customer’s damaged windshield, but she’s ready for any legal issues that might come her way.
“Why should this kind of interaction be expected because of the environment? It’s disgusting,” Lee told Fox 13. “It’s okay for him to be outraged, but it’s not appropriate for me to respond?”
Once again, Lee earns a hearty “hell yeah, sister” from us.