Noon/Afternoon

Working at the Coffee Shop on Rainier at two in the afternoon on a weekday is nice. No long lines, not a lot of customers, it gives you time to kind of relax from the previous morning and lunch rushes. But you can't really relax when a homeless customer is banging his head on the outside window of the store.

Salvo has been a barista with the company for two and a half years. He usually works the noon/afternoon shift, which means he starts around 12:30 PM.

It was around 2 PM on a Wednesday afternoon when a man was walking up and down the street next to the store. I could tell he was homeless because he had a blanket wrapped around him. He walked up and down the street for about 5 minutes and then came near the window by the entrance of the store that looks out on to Rainier. He started to slam his head against the glass window, each slam harder than the last.

I was one-man-ing it (which means I was on register, making drinks and getting food), but I immediately ran in the back and got Karen, our manager. She immediately came out and opened the door and asked the man to stop. He aggressively tried opening the door trying to get in the store. Karen tried to keep the door closed but the he was stronger and continued to aggressively try to come in, at one point he was able to open the door wide enough and punch her in the face. A customer got up and helped Karen keep the door shut. Sarah found the keys for the doors and Karen locked them. Sarah was on the phone with the police and they said they would be there as soon as possible.

The man stopped trying to open the door and walked around the perimeter of the store, he came back around to the main entrance door pulled down his pants and pooped on our door and then ran down the street. The police came well after he was gone.