Florida man pulls gun at Starbucks over cream cheese

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — An angry Florida man pulled a gun on a drive-thru worker because they forgot the cream cheese with his bagel, according to Miami Gardens Police. The employee just happened to be the daughter of the police chief.

Police said the man became angry at a Starbucks drive-thru when they messed up his order earlier this week. He returned to the window, screaming at the employee. She asked whether he had paid for the cream cheese, at which point he became enraged and pulled out a gun, according to an arrest report.

Chief Delma Noel-Pratt told CBS4 that the experience traumatized her 23-year-old daughter. The chief’s daughter told police that the man did not point the gun at her, but that she feared he would hurt her if she didn’t give him the cream cheese.

“She felt in fear of her life,” Noel-Pratt said. ”It was upsetting to me to know that someone would go to that extreme not having cream cheese on his bagel.”

My wife and I tried to do something nostalgic over the weekend, and grab a coffee and a blueberry scone from our local Starbucks. It had been weeks, perhaps months since we last stopped in.

We're not the daily Starbucks addicts that have to order our specialty drinks just a certain way (or else.) It's a nice diversion from whatever else we're doing that day, which is what a trip to such a coffee shop is supposed to be.

But we've noticed more frequently, that Starbucks is not the store it used to be, post-pandemic. First, I should say that they really didn't handle the epidemic well. Their stores have lacked customer service for some time--and most provided drive-through or takeout service only. They did not want you in their stores, and it was apparent.

In any case, back to last weekend. Starbucks was out of nearly every pastry, including my blueberry scone. "Sorry for the inconvenience...supply issues."

Implied, was that they were due to COVID. I get this to a point, but it would seem to me that if your business was service coffee, pastries and sandwiches to your customers, that you would damned sure make sure that you had those things to sell.

This had happened on numerous other occasions, and just as we had done before, we decided not to make the trip. It just wasn't worth the trouble. I wonder how many other potential customers did the same?

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