A Portland jury recently found Latasha Curry not guilty of misdemeanor harassment for throwing a $4 venti iced mocha at a Starbucks manager who accused her of running a free drink scam. Curry was initially offered a free drink after she complained that her iced tea was too bitter. When she tried to redeem her freebie two days later, store manager Ryan Smith decided that Curry looked suspiciously like a woman who redeemed a free drink from a different store 11 months earlier. Smith accused Curry of running some elaborate drink scam, prompting Curry to serve Smith a free venti shower.
When asked by Curry’s defense attorney how he recognized Curry from 11 months ago, Smith said it was her glasses and her voice.
Curry later testified that she doesn’t wear glasses and produced a driver’s license as evidence.
Upset because she felt targeted, Curry said she began to raise her voice as Smith raised his.
Curry said when the other employee placed the drink on the counter, she grasped it, then let go when Smith grabbed it and tried to pull it toward him. He spilled the drink on himself, she said, when she let go of the cup.
“I was very much upset,” she said. “He accused me of going to a store in Jantzen Beach and in his words running a scam. I was offended. . . . I don’t need to steal for or scam for a $4.20 drink.”
Smith called 911 after the incident, claiming that “a customer [just] assaulted me with a hot drink.” We’d like to think that Curry would be entitled to a freebie if her iced tea was served scalding hot.
Starbucks’ corporate office essentially sided with Curry, saying: “Providing great customer service is part of (the company’s) commitment and if a drink isn’t perfect, we want customers to let us know and we’ll make it right.”
Dispute over spilled Starbucks mocha ends up in Portland court [The Oregonian]
(Photo: ka3vo)
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@stuartny: I concur. I’m still waiting for Harvey Birdman to enter the courtroom.
Not a misdemeanor? All right, time to go to Starbucks!
@WEGGLES90: Did you read the article? Or are you assuming she threw the drink at him because that’s what the post headline says?
There is plenty of evidence that she didn’t. If you read the article.
@hatrack: As a gay man, I have to say that we don’t necessarily claim his views as our own.
I think he was a total douche for playing the gay card, and that was the point in the article when I literally exclaimed, “Oh, come on!”
Wow what a scam!
Once a year, you claim that your expertly crafted Starbucks tea is bitter, when everyone knows that it’s always perfect!
How she heats the tea after merely touching it is the most clever part of the scam.
Just skimmed the replies, so sorry if this was covered.
Two things:
Bad post title. Throwing a drink at someone technically constitutes assault, at least in Ohio. It may be considered battery in other states. And the jury didn’t rule that throwing a drink wasn’t harassment. They ruled that the state didn’t prove that it was.
Also, remember that the definition of victim is whoever calls 911 first.
I just don’t get the whole Starbucks COFFEE over a 1$ per cup.And the manager getting into a fight over 4$ cup of coffee that’s probably only cost a 1$ or so to make???
This once happened to me at an Arby’s. I was accused of trying to scam them for free food on an order they messed up two night before. The manager working the night my order was messed up, knew it was and said she was waiting for me to either come back or call. She was very nice and put my name in a book for the next time to get order replaced. The manager that was working the day I went to get my order replaced accused my of trying to scam him for free food. Not only that, but he was the GM. It got pretty ugly. I called coporate, and what it basically boiled down to is that about 6-7 years ealier, I worked at that Arby’s, and quit on the very first night of the new general manager because he was a dickhead. All I did was when I got my break, I went home and never came back. No exchange or anything. I just was not going to work for that asshole. I was a closer, so that probably pissed him off as he was closing that night too. I just can’t believe he’d even remember me as I barely remember him, but what really blows my mind away is that he carried this hardon for me the whole time. It was like he was getting off on being a dick (the reason I quit 7 years ealier plus get real it was a fast food job, how long was I expected to work there?). In the end, corporate offered me free food, which I told them I had no reason to ever go there again as long as he still wrked there. They told me that they told him he was never to talk to me ever again. He won’t even look at me and gets nervous everytime I walk in. This was an ongoing thing with corporate for like 3-4 days. I was threatening lawsuits and everything else. They jumped his ass!
And to think he could have saved looking like an asshat to his manager(s) at corporate if he would have just gave me the damn $10-12 worth of food that was rightfully owed to me.
What makes this story even better is after about a year of never going there, I started to eat there again. And sure enough after a few times they screwed my order up again, but this time they treated me like a customer, not a criminal, and apologized for their mistake, they gave me my food plus some extra cookies and stuff for having to come back. I think they learned there lesson.
I adore Starbucks and I know that’s not a popular sentiment around these parts. But the manager just dug himself into a hole with this one, accusing Curry in public like that, basically botching the facts in the 911 call, identification of Curry and so on.
That said, Curry was completely in the wrong as well, throwing her drink at the manager. Behavior like that is expected from a 4 year old, perhaps, but not a grown adult. Ban Curry from that Starbucks and leave it at that. There’s no reason to bring the authorities into the matter over a cold drink.
@thelushie: I make my own at home, and it’s better than most. 2nd to homemade is Publix, seriously. I may have to try Panera’s, there’s one down the road a piece
Maybe we need a ‘best sweet tea’ thread?
@SMSDHubbard: If you actually call 911 or dispatch and they refuse to respond, call another police department with jurisdiction. If you called town police, direct dial the Sheriff’s Office or the State Police and let them know that the town cops refused your call for aid.
@OletheaEurystheus: Ha! As a former waitress and former teacher, I’d have to agree with your wife. There is nothing worse than entitled middle-class folks. Nothing.
Hope that manager got canned.
Sounds to me like Curry needs to learn some social manners. Same with Starbucks. I’m not siding with either of them on this one.
I’m still not clear,did the Starbucks employee who put the drink on counter do it before or after taking payment,in other words was the store employee already filling her free drink offer?Or was a payment still to be collected even if it was a coupon?Was the drink technically the customers at the time she put her hands on it?
And when the manager alledges free drink scam-what was his proof?Of all people a manager is supposed to be the calm one,the thinker of the bunch and should realize the consequences of a physical confrontation with a customer.Doesn’t Starbucks have somekind of don’t argue with the customer policy?Or better yet,how about a no fighting policy?
It serves the manager right!
O.K. it must just be me that thinks “Latasha” is a black female name, and the Portland manager is not black. Even without blatant racism ( of either or both parties ) there may have well been a difference in communication, then argument styles. If either, or both parties already had a chip on their shoulder about another issue, I could understand how the situation escalated. And BTW if any man was accused of throwing a drink on any woman, whether he actually did or not, he’d be locked-up then sued and have some sort of permanent record that would keep him as a 3rd class citizen for the rest of his life. I suppose I’ll be accused of being racist or sexist just because I recognized that some other people actually are that way.
@hatrack: I’ve seen people get offended if they hold out their hand to take a cup of coffee and the employee puts it on the counter instead.
Some things the clerk should hand to the customer out of simple courtesy, e.g. change, receipts. But the weight of fluid in a cup and the heat of the drink make that next to impossible. I wouldn’t want to end up wearing a drink, even if it was cold.
@cmhbob: No, its a correct post title. Throwing a drink at someone (Assault, in you case/state) is NOT Misdemeanor Harassment. It’s Assault
@edicius: What makes you think she actually threw the drink? Starbucks refuses/lost/destroyed the surveillance tape, which, if it did show her throwing the drink, would (I 100% guarantee) never have been lost.
@OletheaEurystheus:
I would have thrown that pager back at that customer as HARD as I could throw aiming squarely for her head, NO JOB is worth that treatment. Some people are of less value than animals.
One of the problems or god sends with a bad economy is that many just take A JOB for simply that reason-A JOB.To be blunt alot of people don’t belong in certain JOBS including MANAGEMENT.Some people actually find their calling or are just good at a particular JOB.I know of certain people currently working for Starbucks in management that shouldn’t even be in management let alone Starbucks.
And if everyone including the customers would just remember certain people are just trying to do their job or the employees just remember the customers want what they asked for things would be alot better.
If as a customer you think you’re being cheated complain or sue.As the employee you think the company is being cheated notify corporate security or even call the police.The employee is supposed to be the paid professional who is PAID to be polite.
If you want to play Dick Tracy become an actor.
Okay, as someone who once had a clock thrown at her head, I sympathize with someone being, essentially, assaulted.
HOWEVER
The manager falsified a police report. The manager bothered to call the police in the first place! The manager acted like an ass-hat.
If anything, a simple “You’re no longer welcome in this store for this behavior” would have sufficed, as it is NOT acceptable to throw any kind of drink, iced or otherwise, on someone. (Did we learn nothing in kindergarten, kids?)
However, this situation NEVER would have arisen in the first place if the manager wasn’t an idiot. Why did the DA even bother to go forward with the case? GAH!
When the DA found out that Starbucks was supporting the customer, that should have ended the “prosecution”.
Hey. Oh. You don’t throw drinks at people, you overreacting animal. No matter how dumb they are.
But what was that about hot drinks? Hey, no need to say it was a hot drink, manager. She shoved something at your face when she can’t, the result would’ve been the same.
@IrisMR: I think that depends on how that manager was acting. it certainly didn’t seem like he just said, “ma’am, I believe you might be trying to take advantage of free drinks.” It wouldn’t surprise me if said manager might be a bit of a button-pusher.
@donkeyjote: …and it’s a great photo on top of that. The hat makes it complete.
@hatrack: Most Hardeez use real tea, as well.
The race card beats the gay card, the gay card beats the WASP card, the WASP card beats the poor card, the poor card beats the race card, and union seniority card beats all cards for a single turn (similar to the, “Lives in a shoot-first state,” card, but may be used as an attack). I want to make a card game out of this. Who’s with me? Obviously, not this SB manager, that certainly has some unhealthy paranoia issues. He tried using the tin foil card, which…
Oh, and I just noticed: Starbucks is not taking it seriously! Can I get a standing ovation over here for Starbucks PR?
@doctor_cos: You might try reading the post again. The $4 drink in question was a venti iced mocha. You can argue whether you’d pay $4 for that as well, but even Starbucks doesn’t charge $4 for iced tea.
Sounds like they were both being bitches in this situation
@snoop-blog: “All I did was when I got my break, I went home and never came back. No exchange or anything.”
I think this says a lot more about you than about Arby’s.
I am not a big fan of the fact that she threw down the race card, but other than that I am on her side. The manager was (probably still is) a moron.
@humphrmi:
As if DAs have time to read half the cases before they’re heard… He’d be lucky if it was his first glance through… Bet he was just happy people showed up.
I used to do stuff like that to my brother… Hold on to something he wanted to take, then let go at the last second so it would hit him in the face. I know, I know. I’m grounded…
@morganlh85:
If I buy free drink coupons on eBay…I’m not the thief. It’s the store’s own damn fault for making the coupons so easy for the employees to steal…
It all boils down to my attitude toward douchebags employees (note: I try my best to go above & beyond to make nice employees jobs easy):
-I’m profit.
-You’re overhead.
-Act Accordingly.