Espresso Stands Becoming Defenseless Targets For Thieves
Her hands were shaking and she was pale as the cloudy sky. But there was no time to steady herself. The onslaught of customers wouldn’t allow it.
There was coffee to serve.
“Oh my God. She just pulled a gun on me,” said Deena Fray, a clerk who was robbed at the Oasis espresso stand last month.
The robber fled down an alley heading west on the 2200 block of East Francis and hasn’t been seen since.
After giving the female bandit an unknown amount of cash, Fray had to get back to preparing breves, lattes and mochas.
After her shift was over, she quit the job.
“I know I couldn’t have gone back there,” Fray said. “It bugs me.”
Nowadays, local drive-through espresso stands are not only quick sources of coffee, they’re quick sources of cash for small-time crooks.
At the Oasis, 2206 E. Francis, the female suspect appeared on foot on the morning of Jan. 21.
When most businesses are robbed, they shut down operation. But the two women working the Oasis that morning continued to serve drinks.
A Spokane Police officer arrived shortly after the robbery. He had to wait for a lull in the drive-through traffic to get details of the hold-up.
Unlike most latte stands, the Oasis has two video cameras mounted inside it. Videotape caught the suspect, but she couldn’t be identified because she was wearing a ski mask.
“Now I’m scared to death of getting robbed,” said Oasis employee Shawn Shaffer, who wasn’t on duty at the time of the robbery. “It really scares me.”
On Jan. 23, the Just Brew It coffee shop at 1006 W. Francis was robbed by a man who at first ordered a double vanilla latte.
An employee there told a Spokane County Sheriff’s deputy that when she set his drink outside for him to take, he held his hand in his jacket pocket as if he had a gun and demanded the money.
She handed him some cash, and the man walked off toward a nearby McDonalds, according to the deputy’s report.
And last Wednesday, two teenage boys robbed a clerk at the Shot of Heaven espresso stand at 1228 W. Northwest Blvd. at 7 p.m., according to police spokesman Dick Cottam.
Cottam said no one has been seriously injured in an espresso stand robbery, yet.
“They’re real quick,” Cottam said. “Almost always they come up to the window on foot, and they may have a car parked nearby.
He said espresso stand employees are practically defenseless.
“ They’re in these contained areas without any place to go,” he said. “I don’t want to encourage people to think they’re easy places to knock off, but in a way they are.”
The increasing number of espresso stand robberies clearly has shop owners and employees worried for their safety.
“Sure, it’s a concern to any business owner,” said Earl, the owner of Brews Bros., who would give only his first name. “But we’re at the intersection of Division and Francis, and there’s a lot of traffic here.
He said Brews Bros. at 101 W. Francis has an emergency plan in place in the event of a robbery.
“Let’s just say this: On the quick dial on our telephone, the first button is for 911,” he said.
Owners agree there are simple things they can do to protect against losing everything in a robbery, primarily making frequent trips to the bank and keeping a limited amount of cash on hand.
Cottam urged workers to do whatever a suspect says.
“Even if you don’t see a weapon, don’t resist,” he said. “Money isn’t that important to risk being stabbed or shot.”