Waiting at the drive-through can be annoying enough, but nobody expects to get splashed with hot coffee by an angry employee.
A messy situation is unfolding for a Tim Hortons in Michigan, where an employee caught on video Oct. 27 appears to be throwing coffee and Timbits — or as the Americans down there refer to them, “doughnut holes” — at a customer. The customer also claims that after the employee threw scalding coffee at him, he shouted racial slurs out the drive-in window (there’s no audio in the video, but if this is true, I’m on the customer’s side here).
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In a statement released this week by Tim Hortons, they do acknowledge that they are “aware of the incident” and add that “the franchisee has taken the appropriate steps to address the matter.” What those steps may be, I have no idea.
The situation has escalated, as these types of fast-food fiascos generally do, as one of the customers is now pursuing legal action. “It’s a felonious assault. He threw hot coffee. It struck him in the face. Not happy about it. No one should have coffee thrown on their face,” says lawyer Majed Moughni, who spoke to local TV station WDIV.
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But the customer wasn’t entirely on good behaviour here, admitting to his attorney that he did step the fight up a notch, returning to throw coffee back at the drive-through window and hurl spit in his general direction.
“Charge my client with assault — fine. It’s a misdemeanour,” Moughni added. “But charge the real criminal in this case with felonious assault.”
And what set the Timmies worker off in the first place? The customer claims that he asked his co-worker to chuck out an old cup of Tim’s he had in the car, but she refused to do so. That’s when everything hit the fan, as the 19-year-old male allegedly defended his co-worker’s honour by tossing Timbits and coffee at him.
Tim Hortons is taking steps to assure us that this kind of situation doesn’t happen to anyone else when they’re trying to get their coffee fix. “Guest safety is of paramount concern to Tim Hortons,” they said in their statement.
The lesson here, if any? If you ever catch yourself thinking, “Hey, I’m going to throw something at this person while on camera” and your name’s not Florida Woman, you should probably just simmer down.
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