Woman Accuses Starbucks Barista of Stealing Her Credit Card Info, Posts Confrontation Online
Published July 9 2023, 9:33 a.m. ET
A viral TikTok posted by @plznoty has accrued over 336,000 likes on the popular social media platform where a woman confronts a Starbucks barista for stealing her credit card information and making $212 worth of purchases at a grocery store.
In the clip, the mom persistently asks the barista why she stole her card information, stating that she did leg work and captured the individual on camera making the purchase. The Starbucks customer called the grocery store to get a description of the person who made the purchase and it matched the one of a barista she had suspected of stealing her credit card information from the day before.
"So we got you on camera yesterday, at Ralph's for $212 so just know that the cops are coming up here. They recorded your a-- and everything. You took a copy of my f----- card on New Year's day," the customer says to the barista in the drive-thru of the Starbucks.
She continues to speak to the employee: "You know what you did. Right? You know what you did, right?"
The employee says, "I'm so sorry."
"You're sorry about what that you went to Ralph's? You took a f----- copy of my card, here!" the customer tells the food service worker as she waves the card in question in front of her face.
"While you said you were gonna go get receipt paper. And they got your a-- on f------ camera yesterday. So do you, know what you did, right? Before I f------ press charges and everything on you."
The employee tells the woman again that she's sorry before the customer pushes her to be more specific about what she's apologizing for.
"So what are you sorry about that you took f----- money from me and my kids? What are you sorry about?"
"I'm sorry that I took money from you and your kids. I'm sorry that this is inconvenient for you."
The customer then asks, "You're sorry that you're about to lose your job cause f---- corporate knows? Is that what you're sorry about too?"
A passenger who is recording the interaction from the car can be heard telling the customer, "Okay let's go."
"I'm so sorry I am a good child I swear-"
The customer doesn't seem convinced by the apology, "You're a good child. Hmm."
"I am 19 I play soccer," the barista tells the customer.
"So why the f---, how would you even make a copy of my card? I knew you took a minute, you went back there for a minute and I knew what the hell you were doing."
"You thought I wasn't even gonna get to the bottom of it," the woman tells the employee, who asks her to please not press charges for the crime.
"I am seriously gonna press charges on your a---," the customer says.
The video is a throwback clip to a 2016 incident posted by Juana Martinez, the customer in the car. Fox 26 Houston reported that Martinez ultimately decided to not press charges against the Starbucks barista.
The store in question that employed the thief terminated her employment with the chain and issued a statement in response to the video's popuarlity: "We were extremely troubled to learn of this incident, and we have been working directly with the customer to address this situation. We value our customers’ trust, and this experience was completely unacceptable. We will support local authorities in any investigation"
Inside Edition reported further on the incident and uploaded an interview with Martinez detailing how she discovered her card had been compromised.
The outlet described Martinez as a mother of three and in her interview, she stated that the passenger in the car, her husband, was attempting to tell her the leave the drive-thru, but that she was so livid someone would steal her details in such a brazen fashion that she wanted to continue to grill the young woman for her actions.
The video rose to popularity once again on TikTok, with throngs of users sharing their shock and disappointment of the act, along with their own experiences dealing with credit card theft.
"I would have pressed charges and everything," one commenter wrote.
"This happens to my mom and they spend $100 my mom called the bank and said they spend it in doordash," another TikToker penned.
Someone else responded, "This happened to my mom and dad they spent about 1k"
While another person said they would have liked to have seen another angle of the workplace drama: "I’d love to see this from the perspective of her coworkers"