Would-be armed robbers, I have some advice to you: Target Starbucks stores.
No, seriously. The company wants you to endanger its employees and customers, even hurt a few, for your personal financial gain.
OK, admittedly, Starbucks didn’t come out and say that in so many words, but actions speak so much louder than words, and the company’s actions have sent a clear message to aspiring criminals everywhere: Please come take what we have and make it yours by violent force, and feel free to have at any customers who might be present, too.
I mean, I don’t know what other lesson could be taken away from the fact that the company fired two baristas who had been locally lauded as heroes for helping to subdue two men in the middle of an attempted armed robbery at a Starbucks in downtown St. Louis.
On Dec. 17, two men wearing masks walked into the store where Michael Harris and Devin Jones-Ransom were working and made the 10 employees and one customer there get on the ground, demanding that Harris open the register and that everyone on the floor empty their pockets.
(They did not appear intent on stealing any coffee from the company, despite the exhorbitant prices Starbucks charges. Not that I blame them; I dislike Starbucks’ coffee so much that I wouldn’t accept a free cup of it, either.)
Harris (whom the New York Post identified as “Michael Harrison”) said through his attorney, Ryan Krupp, that he feared for his life after one of the masked men struck him in the face, according to St. Louis’ Riverfront Times. (The Post said he was struck in the back of the head.)
“Harris complied with the robbers’ demands until it was no longer an option for himself and others,” Krupp told the Times.
However, the “gun” used to strike Harris cracked, leading some of the Starbucks employees to believe that they weren’t actually being held at gunpoint.
Would you have fired these men?
Yes: 0% (0 Votes)
No: 0% (0 Votes)
At that point, Jones-Ransom started resisting, and Harris joined him. Together, with the assistance of some others, the were able to subdue Joshua Noe and Marquise Porter-Doyle.
They held Noe until police arrived. Porter-Doyle fled the scene, only to be apprehended only a short distance from the Starbucks location.
“I just wanted to do the right thing as a person and as an employee,” Harris said in a statement to the Times.
Porter-Doyle is now facing 10 felony charges: three for 1st-degree robbery, six for 1st-degree attempted robbery, and one for 3rd-degree assault; Noe faces the same charges plus one count of 2nd-degree assault, the Times reported in a separate article.
Harris and Jones-Ransom, meanwhile, are facing unemployment after Starbucks fired them for unspecified violations of company policy, according to Harris’ attorney.
“Michael and Devin were promptly fired by the company without any explanation as to what, if any policy they violated, or what they should have done differently about the situation,” Krupp said in a statement to the Times.
“We were deeply disturbed to learn of this frightening incident,” a Starbucks spokesperson told the Post. “Partner safety is at the core of how we operate in our stores, and we are so grateful that our partners and customers did not come to greater harm in this situation.”
Well, of course that’s what Starbucks said — but frankly, I can’t hear those words because they’re drowned out by the message of the company’s actions.
“Come rob us,” those actions blare out to any who will listen. “We’ll encourage our employees to let you. And, in fact, if they try to stop you, we’ll fire them.”
So next time you read about a robbery at Starbucks, and you will, remember: It was by invitation.
