Starbucks Employees Deploy Brilliant Plan After Noticing Teen Harassed by Coffee Shop Stalker

By Amanda Thomason February 23, 2022 at 10:33am

Being alert and aware of your surroundings is a beneficial skill to cultivate on a personal level, and as one Starbucks team proved, it can help others, too.

An 18-year-old high school senior was studying at one of the coffee shop locations in Corpus Christi, Texas, when a man stepped over to chat.

Brandy Selim Roberson identified herself as the mother of the young woman and has shared the touching way the Starbucks team responded to the conversation.

Roberson told the New York Post that “the man was very loud and animated.”

“She was sitting at her table alone studying and this man came by and noticed what she was studying and wanted to talk to her about it,” she told KHOU-TV in Houston. “He, I think, just kind of became really animated and kind of loud about it.”

Noticing the interaction, and perhaps sensing some discomfort coming from the student — or at least recognizing that she could be in an uncomfortable situation — a female barista walked over with a cup and placed it on the teenager’s table.

The barista told her it was “an extra hot chocolate someone forgot to pick up” — but there was a secret message that came along with it.

Written on the side of the cup was an offer of help.

“Are you okay?” the handwritten message read. “Do you want us to intervene? If you do, take the lid off the cup.”

“She looked up and just saw a row of baristas staring at her — ready to step in,” Roberson said.

Apparently, after realizing there was a line of communication between the student and the Starbucks team, the man backed off and went back to his table.

While the student wasn’t a damsel in distress and didn’t end up feeling the need to remove the lid and allow the staff to intervene, she appreciated the gesture, and many others have, too.

“This reaffirms my faith in humanity,” the girl’s relieved mother said. “Maybe just seeing this story, others … if given the opportunity to say something or turn away, they would say something.”

“I don’t know if that Starbucks trains their baristas that way, but if they do, ‘Bravo!'” Roberson told KWTX-TV. “If they don’t, my gosh — take a note from, you know, this crew.”

Roberson also posted on Facebook to share the heartwarming story, but she has since made the post private.

Still, many have found joy in the anecdote and are holding it up as an example of first-rate behavior and looking out for others, especially those who might be more vulnerable.

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