A bikini-clad barista in South Seattle, Washington has been caught on video smashing her windshield with a hammer after a customer threw a drink at her, with the bartender claiming the man made threatening comments.
On Tuesday, a man went to Taste of Heaven Espresso to buy coffee, and the owner said the customer ordered a 32-ounce cup of coffee and a 24-ounce cup of water, totaling about $22.
Emma Lee, the coffee shop’s owner and sole employee, said the man was infuriated by the price for two drinks.
Lee said KCPQ“Nobody forced you to come here. The argument that he didn’t know or that he was deceived doesn’t hold up. The prices are listed. You can’t set your own prices.”
The video shows the man getting out of his car and escalating the situation.
Other customers reportedly tried to calm the man down for about 10 minutes.
In the video, the man can be heard saying “No one will care without you,” which Lee said he took as a threat.
“Oh, I get it. You have no problem hurting me, that’s obvious,” she said. Kilo TV.
“They threatened me by shouting, spitting and trying to pry open my window, which made me feel unsafe,” Lee said.
Suddenly, an angry customer threw a drink at Lee.
Lee then grabbed a hammer, leaned through the drive-thru window and smashed the windshield of a customer’s vehicle.
Surveillance video of the confrontation can be viewed. here.
“It’s the same thing with screaming, it’s the same thing with getting mad, it’s the same thing with them being outside their car and trying to threaten me,” Lee said, “but when they actually acted out, for me it turned into, ‘Oh no,'”
Mr Lee described the customer’s behaviour as “disgusting”.
She said, “Why would we expect this kind of interaction because of the environment?”
Lee added, “There’s a difference between disrespect and violence. Disrespect is tolerable, violence is hard. That’s where the line is crossed.”
The coffee shop owner claimed he acted in self-defence.
“It’s one thing if he gets angry about the price of a drink and attacks me, but is it inappropriate for me to react?” Mr Lee asked.
She defended her actions by saying: “You threw a drink at me trying to ruin my day and I think you’re trying to ruin your day by buying a new windscreen.”
Lee said he called police after the man refused to leave the parking lot that houses the Taste of Heaven Espresso store.
The police arrived at the coffee shop.
“The police came and made him leave. It was understood that what happened was that he assaulted me and I fought back,” Ms Lee said.
Seattle police said no arrests have been made in the incident.
Lee later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault.
The customer has been banned from the stands, and he can also sue Lee in small claims court to make him pay for the broken windshield.
Some have said the bikini-clad barista’s behaviour is outrageous, but Ms Lee said women have a right to protect themselves.
“I know so many women who didn’t protect themselves in situations where they absolutely should have and could have protected themselves, because we know that retaliation is more likely to fall on the woman who responds to violence than on the woman who is the first to be subjected to it,” Lee explained.
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