Houston, TX – Starbucks has fired the Houston coffee shop employee who wrote “Defund the Police” on the labels of three beverages on Sunday.
Starbucks spokesman Reggie Borges told The Police Tribune that the partner’s actions on Sept. 27 were “unacceptable” and said the coffee company had moved swiftly to apologize to the affected customer and investigate the incident.
Borges confirmed the employee was terminated on Monday.
A picture of one of the offending beverages was posted to Facebook by a woman who said her kids returned home and showed her their cups.
“My exhusband takes my children to the Starbucks on I-10 and Kirkwood before bringing them home,” the angry mother began. “All 3 of their drinks have this printed on the label.”
The picture her post referred to showed that instead of putting a name on the cup, the employee who took the order had written “Defund the Police” on all three drink’s labels.
“I called and made the manager aware…as if she wasn’t already,” the post continued. “She acted like she couldn’t careless. All of my LEO friends be careful when getting anything from there.”
She urged people to call the manager of the Starbucks location and provided its phone number in her post.
“This s–t has to stop,” she added. “We can’t even get a cup of coffee without worrying about being poisoned or worse. Wtf is wrong with America???”
The Police Tribune reached out to the woman who posted the picture via messenger had not heard back at publication time.
Starbucks said they began investigating the incident as soon as they were alerted.
Borges told The Police Tribune that they were taking the matter “very seriously” and that the employee had been removed from the floor until the investigation was completed.
“Every customer should feel welcome and treated with respect when they visit any of our stores – especially our first responder community and their families,” he said.
“Any behavior from our partners that doesn’t aspire to be a positive experience is unacceptable,” Borges said.
He confirmed the employee had been terminated on Monday.
