Bail was not granted to a 65-year-old Los Angeles man on Thursday, June 26 after going into a violent frenzy at a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf after staff refused to refill his Starbucks cup at a discounted price.
Officers of the Santa Monica Police Department were requested to attend to an incident at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf (purveyors of coffee, tea and other sundries) located in the 200 block of Santa Monica Boulevard at 6 am on this day in order to deal with an unruly customer.
When the officers arrived they learned what had happened from a staff member. Apparently, this man had entered the store with a cup that bore the logo of a competitor, namely Starbucks.
The man had requested that he be given a discounted refill, and when the staff member informed him that they were not prepared to refill a competitor’s cup, the man went into a frenzy, overturning tables and chairs and throwing display items at the employees.
One of the employees sustained minor injuries to her chest and had as a result of being struck by the flying objects.
The man then yelled obscenities at the customers (or at least those who had remained in the store by then), informing them that he had at one time travelled to the country of Vietnam and whilst he was there he had killed people.
He added that he would do it again (we are not sure if he meant that he would return to Vietnam and kill more people, or whether he would kill people in Santa Monica).
Upon arrival of the police the man sat in a chair and casually insulted the officers.
This man was arrested and charged with assault and vandalism.
Editor’s Note: These reports are part of a regular police coverage series entitled “Alert Police Blotter” (APB), which injects some minor editorial into certain police activities in Santa Monica. Not all of The Mirror’s coverage of incidents involving police are portrayed in this manner. More serious crimes and police-related activities are regularly reported without editorial in the pages of the Santa Monica Mirror and its website, smmirror.com.
