This former Starbucks employee chose the wrong person to steal credit card info from.
In a video that is alternately uncomfortable and satisfying to watch, Juana Martinez confronts the thief at the drive-thru window of a Bellflower Starbucks. "So we got you on camera yesterday, at Ralphs—for $212," she tells the stunned cashier. "So just know the cops are coming up here. They recorded your ass and everything."
Martinez told NBC Los Angeles that she found it unusual that the cashier was taking so long with her credit card when she ordered a drink on New Year's Day. Not long after that, the fraudulent charge for $212 appeared on her statement, confirming her suspicion. Instead of just letting the authorities handle it, she decided to take matters into her own hands and confront the thief.
The woman is immediately apologetic to Martinez, who isn't having any of it. "What are you sorry about, that you took fucking money from me and my kids?" Martinez responds. "You're sorry that you're about to lose your job because fucking corporate knows?"
The woman pleads, "I'm a good child, I swear. I go to school," but it doesn't soften Martinez one bit. "I am seriously gonna press charges on your ass," the mom responds.
"You come to Starbucks to get coffee not to get robbed."
Although Martinez got the money back from the bank and even received a phone call from a Starbucks executive apologizing for the incident, she says she wanted to get face-to-face with the thief in order to teach a lesson. "At the end of the day, I just hope she learned her lesson," she told NBC Los Angeles.
Starbucks said in a statement that the woman had been fired from her job, and despite all of Martinez's righteous anger in the video, KTLA says she ultimately decided not to press charges.
"I almost feel bad for the girl but she robbed the wrong person," Martinez's brother, Brian Espinoza wrote on Facebook. Perhaps the public shaming is enough justice.
