The Case of the Starbucks “Pay It Forward”
Recently, fellow b5media blogger, Jonathan Ramsey and I were in a meeting at our day job (yes, folks, we work together away from blogging too) when one of our co-workers told us that he had heard of a Starbucks that had made the evening news recently.
The story was that a person was at the drive through window of the local Starbucks and had ordered a number of specialty coffee drinks, so it was taking the order a while to be completed. The man in the car behind was impatient and started to honk the horn to try to hurry the person up. The first person went to pay for the large order and said to the cashier to include whatever the man in the car following had ordered in his payment as well.
As the story goes, the man finally got to the window and found out that the car before him had paid for his coffee, which made him feel guilty. So he said that he would pay for the order of the person behind him. And the story went on to say that the trend continued on all that day of each person paying for the order for the car behind them.
Jonathan, being who he is, left the meeting and proceeded to look the story up online, only to find that it had not happened at all. It turned out to be an urban legend.
But it got me to thinking, what would happen if Horatio Caine had approached the Starbucks drive-through window and was told that the person in front of him in line had already paid for his order? Let’s see if we can think through this theoretical scenario…
Horatio is in the line of work where little things add up to huge clues to crimes. He sees through the seemingly innocent gesture of good will and jots down the license plate number of the car in front of him.
He sees the cashier sneeze, then place her hand on the counter as she hands him a napkin. He quickly pulls out an evidence swab and captures her DNA, just in case.
Then, when she hands him his coffee, he holds open an evidence bag and asks her to put it in there. She thinks he’s strange, but does as he asks.
Back at the lab, he runs the plate and finds that the person in the front car just got out of prison for credit card theft. He decides to run the DNA analysis and the fingerprints from the cup.
It turns out that his gut was right. The cashier and the driver of the car were collaborating to collect credit card numbers and when he continues the investigation, he uncovers a huge credit card theft ring.
So much for a free coffee from Starbuck’s!!
So how do you think other CSI characters would react to the Starbuck’s situation? Would they be suspicious too, or would they accept the generosity and move on? I’d love to hear your thoughts too. Leave a comment and let’s get a discussion going.
csi-miami, csi miami, CSI, cbs, tv, Television, David Caruso
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POSTED IN: CSI Fun, David Caruso, Thoughts
2 opinions for The Case of the Starbucks “Pay It Forward”
Vic
Jan 1, 2008 at 5:33 pm
Flack would take the coffee and RUN!!!!!
Holly
Jan 3, 2008 at 7:52 am
Stella would freak out thinking she had yet another stalker…
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