Dunn Bros. Coffee Thug

I was going to write about Randy Moss and Sammy Sosa today, but that will have to wait until tomorrow. Instead I will write about the Dunn Bros. Coffee Thug. He is about 6 feet tall, has short brown hair with a goatee. He was wearing a white t-shirt, although he has probably changed by now. When I first noticed him I remember thinking that he looked somewhat sinister, not so much in how he was dressed, but in his facial expression and in the determined way that he marched into my favorite Dunn Bros..

Some of the reasons that this Dunn Bros. is my favorite coffee shop are because it is open reasonably late, they roast their own beans in the store and they have live music every night. The music was really pretty bad last night. I have a corner that I always sit in...it is in the back by the stairs and under a big plant. I can observe the whole scene from there. I like to people watch. That is what I was doing when the Dunn Bros. Coffee Thug entered.

He entered by the front of the store and disappeared behind a wall that divides the shop counter from the main seating area. He reappeared in the back of the coffee shop in the corner directly across from my seat. The Dunn Bros. Coffee Thug had trapped an employee against the bean roaster and was swinging wildly with both fists. At first I thought that they were just being guys who were playing around--for fun. Then I thought, "that looks like it hurts." Presumably a large guy buying beans at the back counter thought so too. I noticed that he was staring at the skirmish for a second or two before it occurred to him to intervene. While the Large Bean Buying Man held back the Dunn Bros. Coffee Thug the Roasted Employee called 911. This was the cue for the Thug to flee. He ran past me and out the back door.

Meanwhile, the bad music continued to play and no body in the main seating area noticed a thing. They continued sipping coffee and reading their books. The Large Bean Buying Man merely turned around and finished paying for his beans before walking out of the store. I, on the other hand, began thinking about what role I would play in the next drama should the thug return better equipped--maybe with a 9mil. Semi automatic. I of course would catch him by surprise--no body expects the guys sitting in the corner to ever do anything...the corner guys don't want to be the center of attention.

It wasn't until six paramedics, three fire fighters and three police officers showed up in the small coffee shop that the patrons began looking up from their newspapers. The Roasted Employee had a puffy eye and irregular heartbeat but was in good hands. I sat there wondering what his bill would be for the five emergency response vehicles sitting outside.

The whole thing reminded me of the time I had a gun pulled on me at a suburban grocery store. My friends and I had just finished stocking up on toilet paper when a gunman pulled alongside our car and pointed a hand gun at us. Then they sped off. It feels surreal in that life goes on like normal but you can't shake the idea that something absurd just happened.