Coffee and Sober Breath Please

It's been a while since I've blogged on coffee and when I saw the news article in the paper about an incident at a Natte Latte espresso stand outside of Seattle, Washington, I just had to write on it. I've written about the various quirks and 'fashions' that many coffee drinkers have about how they order their coffee or how they occupy tables for hours at a time doing nothing more than pretending to work while actually playing online games but I think this is the first time I've ever run an incident like this.

Apparently a woman entered the shop last Wednesday around 11:00 in the morning and ordered a latte. She then also asked the barista preparing her coffee if she wouldn't mind blowing into her breathalyzer so that she could start her car and get to work. Now if this was me I'd probably do exactly what the barista did and that was to refuse flat out. This response was not what the customer was expecting so she began to rant and rave and complain vociferously. She then proceeded to buy the coffee and then sit in her car and drink it. She returned a short time later and again complained to the barista that thanks to her failure to blow into the customer's breathalyzer, she was late for work in Seattle. She then left the store in a huff and drove off.

Needless to say the barista called the authorities as it was likely that there was an intoxicated woman driving the streets so when the police caught up with the customer, they asked her if the story was true. The customer (who had apparently sobered up by now) reported that the story was false and that the barista was in fact the rude party and was refusing to help when the customer indicated that she was having car trouble. When the police asked why the barista would then tell the police such an odd and 'false' story, the customer indicated that the 'little girl' barista was lying because 'they do that'. The police did not press charges but did follow up by contacting the state licensing office so I would assume that to mean that they probably suspended the customer's license as the only reason I can think of for asking a barista to blow into a breathalyzer is because she was too drunk to do it herself.

It's funny how the agreived parties can often attempt to turn the tables on those who do the right thing and attempt to lay the blame on the innocent. I remember a case of a woman who had numerous moving violations and was in court one day to answer to a judge why she drove past a school bus which had it's lights on and was disembarking students. The defendant explained that she had to go to the bathroom really badly and that she didn't care that the students were in the way... she had an emergency. Be that as it may, you're not helping your case when you interrupt the judge by explaining that you had to pee as that woman apparently did. Needless to say the woman's license was suspended. I certainly hope that this was the case for this woman as well. At least she'll be awake with that latte when the judge hands down his verdict.