A bikini barista went viral after a video of the woman bashing in a customer’s windshield with a hammer made the rounds on social media.
Bad behavior caused bikini barista to bash in windshield
The incident occurred in South Seattle, Washington, after the man made threatening remarks and threw the coffee she just brewed for him at her through the drive-thru window.
On Tuesday, a man visited Taste of Heaven Espresso to purchase a 32-ounce coffee and a 24-ounce water, which came out to $22.
Emma Lee, who owns and operates the coffee shop by herself, claimed the man became enraged over the cost of the beverages.
“No one is forcing you to come here. The prices are listed. You don’t get to name your own price,” Lee told a local news outlet.
The viral video footage shows the irate customer exiting his vehicle, and escalating the confrontation over what Lee said was a ten minute period, with other patrons tried to talk him down.
Lee recounted feeling threatened when the man said, “Nobody’s going to miss you.” She told KIRO-TV, “Oh, okay, so you have no problem harming me, you’re making that clear.”
After screaming, spitting, and trying to pry open the window, the customer threw the drinks at Lee, who then grabbed a hammer and smashed his windshield while she was hanging out of the drive-through window.
Surveillance footage captured the entire event. “It’s one thing to yell, it’s one thing to get mad, it’s one thing to even be outside of your car and try to threaten me,” Lee stated.
“But to actually have the action behind it, it changed things for me where I was like ‘oh no.'”
Labeling the customer’s behavior as “disgusting,” Lee questioned if such interactions should be expected at this point, due to the current state of rampant crime in the nation.
“Disrespect and violence are two different things. I can handle the disrespect, the violence is like a hard, that’s where the line is crossed,” she added.
Lee asserted that her own actions were carried out in self-defense. “It’s okay for him to be outraged about the price of his drinks, enough to assault me, but it’s not appropriate for me to respond?” she questioned.
“I personally think that you thought you were going to throw drinks on me and ruin my day, you’re going to pay for a new windshield and it’s going to ruin your day,” she said about her hammer-wielding retaliation.
Lee called the police after the customer refused to leave the premises. According to Lee, the responding officers understood that the man had assaulted her first, leading to her response.
No arrests were made, but Lee has filed charges for misdemeanor assault. The customer is now banned from the coffee stand and could take Lee to small claims court for the cost of the windshield.
While some critics argue that Lee’s response was excessive, she defended her right to self-defense.
“I know so many women that haven’t defended themselves in situations they definitely should’ve and could have because we know that the repercussion more likely than not is going to fall on the woman that responds to the violence than the initial violence inflicted,” she told KIRO-TV.
Washington state man attempts to kidnap bikini barista
Lee’s justification of her actions is hard to argue with, when a fellow bikini barista in the area was nearly kidnapped by customer.
A man from Washington state tried to kidnap a different bikini barista at a drive-up coffee window, and the shocking incident was captured on video.
In January of last year, Matthew Darnell, 39, tried to yank a barista through the window at Beankini Espresso in Auburn.
Surveillance footage showed Darnell pulling up to the coffee shop at 5 a.m. on January 6, 2023. He asked for change and then tried to pull the barista into his truck while attempting to zip-tie her wrist.
The barista managed to escape by slamming the window shut and he sped away before the sun rose.
Thanks to a distinctive tattoo reading “Chevrolet,” Darnell was arrested the next day and charged with assault and attempted kidnapping.
After serving 220 days in jail, Darnell was released following a plea deal for attempted kidnapping, which only added another 50 days to his time behind bars.
A spokesperson for the King County Prosecutor’s Office explained, “Prosecutors statewide are limited by sentencing guidelines and offender score.”
The spokesperson noted that people often feel the sentences should be longer, but the office must follow state laws set by lawmakers.
Despite the conviction, the crime remained classified as a Class C felony, similar to felony harassment, which carries a light sentence.
The short sentence was disturbing to victims’ rights advocates, as Darnell lives two blocks away from the coffee stand.
Mary Ellen Stone, CEO of the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center, questioned the effectiveness of reporting assaults due to such light sentencing.
“We see that all the time,” she remarked. “There are a variety of reasons why that happens, but the message it sends to victims is what happens to you wasn’t important.
“The other thing it does is that it says people that are behaving in this way, not that big a deal,” Stone added. “You’re not going to be held accountable.”
