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But First, Harassment

Foothills Area

Dec. 1, 5:34 a.m.

A woman allegedly grabbing coffee for cops made a huge scene at a Starbucks before sunrise, insisting it hadn't opened exactly on time at 5:30 a.m., a Pima County Sheriff's Department report stated.

Dispatch received an "unwanted person" call at 5:34 a.m. from the supervisor at a northside Starbucks, who said a woman was outside "laying on her horn" and wouldn't leave.

At 5:43, when two sheriff's deputies had arrived in two separate patrol vehicles, the woman was still there, sitting in a BMW SUV in the drive-thru.

One deputy interviewed the supervisor, who said that morning she and another employee had been working hard to prepare the store for opening at exactly 5:30 a.m. When she heard someone pounding on the front door, she said, she'd been at the store's safe, so she couldn't respond to the pounding immediately, but at 5:29 she was able to get her coworker to watch the safe while she went to unlock the door—but whoever was pounding had disappeared.

A few seconds later, she said she heard a woman outside at the drive-thru "yelling very loudly" at her coworker at the window, demanding to speak to the manager. When the reportee came to the window, the woman asked her what time it was, and she responded, "5:30."

The woman "yelled at her" that no, her satellite said it was after 5:30, and now the Starbucks "was losing $150 that the woman was going to spend to buy products for the Oro Valley Police Department." She then "started to lay on the horn, which was very loud."

The reportee said the subject's antics prevented her and her helper from doing the rest of their store-opening tasks; in addition, since the woman refused to leave, they'd lost business from other customers who'd shown up and been scared away (and couldn't use the drive-thru anyway). While relating all this, the supervisor was so obviously stressed that she was close to tears.

The female subject totally denied being disruptive, saying she'd been upset that the store hadn't opened on time, but she only "drove around to the drive thru, just sat there, and did not do anything." (Later, she admitted to "honking" and apologized for not initially mentioning that.)

Since this contradicted the testimony of three people (including a Starbucks deli-area worker)—indicating she'd been yelling in the drive-thru for 45 minutes—the woman was charged with disorderly conduct. She had "many questions" about the charge but eventually signed her citation and was released, also agreeing not to come back to that store until she obtained advance permission from the manager by phone. The report included no conclusive evidence that the woman was—or wasn't—buying coffee for the OVPD.