Police: Armed woman targeting Everett coffee stands
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EVERETT, Wash. -- Baristas all over Everett are on edge as word of an armed robber spreads throughout the community.
Police say a robber has targeted numerous local coffee stands in the past month. What makes the story so unusual is that the robber is a woman.
Laura Dana owns Stiletti Coffee, which was recently held up. She said a woman wearing a hooded sweatshirt approached her stand armed with a knife. The woman said she had a gun and demanded money from the till.
Standing 5'2" to 5'4" tall with blond hair, the woman is hardly the stereotypical idea of a robber.
Stiletti is a bikini coffee stand, and Dana thinks that could be why it was targeted.
"A bikini stand tends to be busier than a regular family friendly stand," she said.
Dana also said her baristas are easy targets.
"These coffee stands get robbed all the time," she said. "I hear about it all the time down in Everett everywhere."
Stiletti was robbed twice in the last two weeks, and another stand just down the road was held up on November 20.
Police think all three robberies are connected because in each case the woman handed the barista a note.
"It said that she had a gun and if she didn't hand over all the money in the till right away she was gonna hurt her," Dana said.
With the woman still on the loose, Dana said baristas in the area are a bit on edge.
"I guess anybody with a knife can be pretty scary, you know, especially if they threaten you with a gun," she said.
Police say the robber is a white woman in her 20s with blond hair and face piercings. She fled each robbery in a red pickup truck with no canopy.
Anyone with information about the robberies is asked to call Everett police.
Police say a robber has targeted numerous local coffee stands in the past month. What makes the story so unusual is that the robber is a woman.
Laura Dana owns Stiletti Coffee, which was recently held up. She said a woman wearing a hooded sweatshirt approached her stand armed with a knife. The woman said she had a gun and demanded money from the till.
Standing 5'2" to 5'4" tall with blond hair, the woman is hardly the stereotypical idea of a robber.
Stiletti is a bikini coffee stand, and Dana thinks that could be why it was targeted.
"A bikini stand tends to be busier than a regular family friendly stand," she said.
Dana also said her baristas are easy targets.
"These coffee stands get robbed all the time," she said. "I hear about it all the time down in Everett everywhere."
Stiletti was robbed twice in the last two weeks, and another stand just down the road was held up on November 20.
Police think all three robberies are connected because in each case the woman handed the barista a note.
"It said that she had a gun and if she didn't hand over all the money in the till right away she was gonna hurt her," Dana said.
With the woman still on the loose, Dana said baristas in the area are a bit on edge.
"I guess anybody with a knife can be pretty scary, you know, especially if they threaten you with a gun," she said.
Police say the robber is a white woman in her 20s with blond hair and face piercings. She fled each robbery in a red pickup truck with no canopy.
Anyone with information about the robberies is asked to call Everett police.
That IS Doris. Just saw her a couple of days ago in Lake City...
That looks like Doris. Sheâs still mad about all the Tip money her EX gave the bikini coffee gals and wantâs it back.
that lady is just insuring she has a bed at the gray bar hotel for her retirement years.
"What makes the story so unusual is that the robber is a woman."
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Wow, nice sexism there KOMO. You stereotype most robbers as men?
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"Standing 5'2" to 5'4" tall with blond hair, the woman is hardly the stereotypical idea of a robber."
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And what is the stereotypical robber KOMO, a black man? A Hispanic man? A short blonde hair woman without facial piercings?Â
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it's not sexist. it's fact. 22.7% of robberies are Male perp to female victim, where 2.4% are Female perp to female victim. kind of a dumb place to make a feminist stand. What an idiotic response. go comment on TMZ about the latest Lindsay Lohan story or something more your speed. @lakeviewÂ
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 @deadcandance Oh Yeah, and she pulls out the gun and shoots through the walls and window. yea those coffee stands are bullet proof. if she has a gun then you need a bigger gun.
 @deadcandance YES! OMG, that would make her cry! Or stop breathing if she has drugs on board! That is liquid HELL!! Especially the stream. Other than childbirth that was the worst pain I have EVER experienced. That said, I did not ever want to use it..just in case it sprayed back at me. But there is always a time and place, when I did have to use it, it worked like a charm! Instant pain, game over.
OK, I got sprayed in the academy..I always have to explain it.
what if this women knows all of these girls in these bikini huts and they're strategically robbing these shack and splitting the $.  It would make total sense to me.
 @DEC212012 tell your mom to stop robbing the coffee stands.
These places need a safe with a rolling drop top so they can keep only change for a $20 bill at all times.Â
 @DEC212012 safes don't stop robberies! it only makes the robber mad if you don't have enough cash for their drugs. if you only have a few dollars in your wallet when you get mugged they will most likely harm you cause you should have at least $20 or more. 7-11 has had drop safes for years and they are still robbed. Â
 @DEC212012 This did not work out well for a few friends of mine. They were working and had a safe that only dispensed $200 in the case of a robbery. There was a regular safe in the back that just held change.
They were held at gun point and duct taped, their mouths too, so they couldn't tell him there wasn't any money other than change in the big safe. When they opened the safe and the robber saw it was only change he became so enraged my friend said "I knew right there I was dead, I put my head on the ground as he pressed the gun to my head."
He took their money out of their purses, and thankfully ran out the back door where he was almost eaten by a K-9, my friend was able to hit the panic button. That place was so cheap they'd rather spend a ton of money on the safe than on glass. They both quit that day.Â
I had worked there a short time. When they installed the safe I told them it would get us killed. I quit about a week prior to the robbery. One of the other girls was going to quit with me, but she said she had to get another job first. The store is closed now. Not long after the robbery.
Policy didn't allow for concealed carry..so I didn't tell anyone. But it sure made me feel better to have it, just glad everyone was safe and I left before that.
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I would have tossed a cup of hot scalding water in the womens face. I would have told her  "show me the gun and I'll give you the money."Â
"I guess anybody with a knife can be pretty scary, you know, especially if they threaten you with a gun," she said.
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what the hell is that supposed to mean?
it means "women talking" you know what I mean?
Another reason for Barista's to keep their cloths on. I would imagine she is not operating on her own.
The person interviewed doesn't sound too smart to annouce what easy targets they are and how they have more money than regular stands.Â
 @nomad I was thinking the same thing. The entire article just told everyone how to do it..not that you need much brains, but still.
Good point.
Hopefully this terrifying event will encourage the baristas as well as everyone else in the community to become legally armed and properly trained. Â The police will generally arrive after a crime has been committed, and these events illustrate why it's a false, unfounded hope to expect a police officer to be able to be there quickly enough to stop a fast-occurring crime like this. Â We can be very thankful that (apparently) no victims have been hurt by this criminal up to this point, but that pattern frequently changes as a criminal becomes emboldened by his/her successes.
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Best wishes to all of the innocents involved in these crimes, and I'm hoping that these traumatic experiences will not cause too many lasting emotional scars.
 @Stoat While I agree that citizens have a right to use (deadly) force to defend themselves against a threat of bodily harm, workers typically don't own the business so the money or goods that are taken don't belong to them. The business owner can simply state to the employees that they are not to fight back during a robbery. Â
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But from the picture, this woman who is robbing stands is in a pretty bad tactical position. She's outside, she apparently has not displayed a firearm, and she doesn't understand that you really should not bring a knife to a gunfight. Someday, the robber may run across a barista who legally carries a firearm, and the robber may actually try to attack with her knife. That could be a bad move....
 @Veteran "....workers typically don't own the business so the money or goods that are taken don't belong to them. The business owner can simply state to the employees that they are not to fight back during a robbery." Â
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Sadly, this is not any sort of a guarantee that a criminal will not harm an employee, either out of a 'thrill kill' mentality, getting the idea that the employee isn't acting quickly enough, Â simple malice, a fear of being identified or no reason at all. Â An armed robbery is an armed robbery, and there is no 'contract' between the robber and the victim that the robber will not harm the victim.....not a 'contract' that anyone should trust, anyway. Â All too often people who comply with robbers are killed or badly harmed for their trouble. Â It's true, a business owner can demand that their employees not fight back (although I feel that this is wrong and possibly unconstitutional ) and the employees can also find a different place to work that allows them to properly defend themselves in cases of the gravest extreme.
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 @seattle123  @Veteran I was responding to Veteran's hypothetical, which was not 'pointless' but related appropriately to numerous real-life scenarios that exist today. Â
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Even if it were a 'tangent' why would it have been so objectionable to you that you feel the need to upbraid people for discussing related and entirely relevant topics? Â What value to you see in attempting to stifle free discourse?
 @Stoat  @Veteran Stoat, you just went on a pointless tangent. No where in the atricle did it state that these baristas are not allowed to defend themselves....
 @Veteran ".... So it' can be a tough decision to make on the part of the worker. "
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Perhaps, although I'd suggest that it would be a VERY easy decision to make for anyone with an ounce of sense to make before they even applied to work at such a place. Â I'm wondering where any family or boyfriend might have been when these ladies were contemplating such employment.
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 If I one of these ladies had approached me and said "I'm thinking of going to work as a barista, where the nature of the job demands that I have close contact with random members of the public, and even occasionally touch them as I hand them a drink or give them change.  I'll be dressed all day in only a very skimpy bikini and there will be no security there and I won't be allowed to legally defend myself" I would have replied with "are you completely out of your mind?"  This entire business model of a 'bikini barista' in this context is a problem waiting to happen.
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"No business owners want to be sued and especially because of situations where it could be shown that a victim didn't have the legal right to use deadly force based on the situation." Â
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That's why business owners and employees alike need to educate themselves on the particulars of the law as it pertains to these matters, as most all legal concerns of the employer are not grounded in legal fact in scenarios such as this, and a properly trained employee will know what he or she can or can't do with a firearm, and carries a gun knowing the tremendous responsibilities that go along with it.
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"if I was the worker who was being robbed by this crazed woman and I was threatened with a knife or a gun and this women tried to use violence, well, there would be a need for the coroner"
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Me too  ;-)
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 @Stoat No, it isn't a guarantee that a worker would not be harmed. But some business owners that have a policy of requiring that their employees must not fight a robber also can say that doing so will result in termination. So it' can be a tough decision to make on the part of the worker.Â
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Whether or not such a policy is unconstitutional is something to be argued by lawyers. The big issue I could see with an employee fighting back is that the business could be sued by the robber or his family. And this has happened before but usually with a suit being tossed out. No business owners want to be sued and especially because of situations where it could be shown that a victim didn't have the legal right to use deadly force based on the situation.
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Now, if I was the worker who was being robbed by this crazed woman and I was threatened with a knife or a gun and this women tried to use violence, well, there would be a need for the coroner.....
Grandma,grandma is that you?
Hopefully Ma Barker will get a full pot of hot Joe in the face.
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Or possibly, some high velocity lead.
"Stiletti" - nomen est omen
 @Komo Dragon My grandma always told me "There is so much in a name, be careful what you name your child/dog/whatever."Â
Very true, and scary. I wish these women safety and a better life, even if they think it's great, they will look back one day like we all do and wonder "WTH was I thinking?"Â
I'm not judging by any means either.
I can't understand why she hasn't had a cup of molten espresso thrown in her face yet.
 @belsnickles Because, like, it's a BIKINI espresso stand yanno? Like, like, a lot of them aren't too, ummmm, like, SMART, yanno......fer shure!
 @Wolfen Now, now.  They're all working their way through college, right?
TWEAKER ALERT.....Â
Meth. That's all I gotta say.
She walks up to the stand with a knife, and says she has a gun? Does she not know the difference?
 @Wolfen Maybe it's one of those guns where the little sign pops out and unfurls that reads "BANG!!"Â
I can see where, in a meth-induced haze, she could mistake that for her trusty switchblade.Â
Stupid girl, just so you know it's not who you know that you need to worry about, its who knows you that you have to worry about. We all see your face and already know you.Â
 @Just my say Very nice! You sound like a Clint Eastwood character, a good one. I like those sayings.
I was watching cops years ago and a guy running from a Texas State Patrolman said "Boy you better get back to your neck of the woods", the trooper responded with
"BOY, the ENTIRE state of Texas is MY NECK OF THE WOODS!"Â Loved it!!
I'm still wondering why no one has gotten at least part of the red pickup with no canopy, or even the make.Â
Is this nut job STILL on the loose??? **facepalm**
 @TreeTopFlyer I was wondering the same thing......
EPD or another agency will nab this zombie and perhaps her crack-head accomplice too. Hopefully it will be a happy "ending", if you get my drift.
All it takes is messing with one armed barista...
 @Kermee They're all armed... with hot coffee!
 @Kermee um, so where does a bikini barista carry?
 @Susabelle  @Kermee In her, um ... er ... holster, I'm guessing... o_oÂ
 @Wolfen  @MargeGunderson  @Susabelle  @Kermee Wolfen, I was waiting for you to say something about hot chicks and coffee..LOL!
 @Wolfen  @Susabelle  @Kermee Oh, yeah right, of course you weren't!Â
 @MargeGunderson  @Susabelle  @Kermee I wasn't gonna go there.......
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 @Kermee I first read this as one-armed barista. It makes a lot more sense the way you actually typed it.Â
 @MargeGunderson LOL....me too...lol
 @MC  @MargeGunderson OMG..LOL!!
 @MargeGunderson  @Kermee I read it the same way.... and I'm still laughing :) Â