My name is Brad. I am a writer, I am awkward in social situations, and I spend a lot of time in coffee shops trying to escape all of the terribly distracting things I find at home (video games, movies, tv, cats, comics, vitamin water, robots, etc.). I rotate amongst local coffee shops throughout the week so that no single location becomes too familiar with my presence. Spending any appreciable amount of time in one place is bound to make you privy to the occasional odd situation, but I have come to believe that coffee shops are breeding grounds for weird. The following is my account of the wonderfully weird and horribly awkward situations I have encountered.

A Thief In Our Midst.

This blog has a long standing relationship with the hobos of Starbucks.  Some of them are fairly harmless, some like to watch, others are paying patrons, and some dare to walk that fine line of what is considered legal.

While standing in line the other day, however, I saw a not-very-hobo-looking man walk up and grab a cheese and fruit snack plate and stand in line behind me… or so I thought.  Another patron standing at the counter pointed out that the man had just walked out with the food.  Sure enough, the man was not in line behind me.

The patron then explained that while a patron at this Starbucks, he worked at another nearby Starbucks where the hobo frequently stole from.

There are two things that really intersted me about this situation:

1. How nonchalantly the item was stolen.  There was no sneaking at all.  As a matter of fact, the hobo actually gave one woman a small nudge to move her out of the way of the food area.  It is my belief that he could have just as easily taken a number of items from the store.

2. If the man saw the hobo take something, why did he wait until well after the hobo had fled to point out the observation?  My guess is that the ensuing confrontation would have been more trouble than cheese plate was worth.    I probably would have done the same.

I must say, though, this does give me pause about leaving my belongings at my table while using the restroom.

Leave a Comment

Hopefully something coffee related...