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Timmy Hortons and the Badly Handled Drive-Thru Coffee Order, Part Five

Customers laid hands on me, but I never touched anyone. Even in my current job, I try NEVER to touch anyone. For starters, I hate being touched. Secondly, you never know how someone will interpret your touch. A gentle, encouraging pat on the shoulder can be twisted into an “inappropriate massage” and mess you up. The 20-year-old employee never should have touched the woman. I understand what she was trying to do, but no matter how gently you touch a person during an altercation, some people will scream that the older woman was “shoved” by the younger employee.

To me, it was just a gentle hand on the woman’s upper chest near her shoulder. I’m surprised no one has claimed sexual harassment.

So yeah, the Tim Horton’s employee never should have touched the woman. Mistake number one.

The elderly woman shoved the 20-year-old in a not-so-gentle way after she was touched. Mistake number two.

Immediately after being shoved, the 20-year-old leaned right up in the older woman’s face. Mistake number three.

Older woman punches 20-year-old employee. Mistake number four.

The 20-year-old comes charging out of the swinging door, with a series of punches. Both she and the customer end up on the floor. Mistake number five.

After the 20-year-old is pulled away by the combined efforts of two employees, the woman gets up under her own power and sits down at a booth.

Supposedly, one of the employees brings the woman some water. The video doesn’t show that part.

Read part one here: https://nowaylaowai.home.blog/2026/05/22/timmy-horton-and-the-badly-handled-drive-thru-coffee-order/

Read part two here: https://nowaylaowai.home.blog/2026/05/22/timmy-horton-and-the-badly-handled-drive-thru-coffee-order/

Read part three here: https://nowaylaowai.home.blog/2026/05/24/timmy-horton-and-the-badly-handled-drive-thru-coffee-order-part-three/

Read part four here: https://nowaylaowai.home.blog/2026/05/25/timmy-hortons-and-the-badly-handled-coffee-order-part-four/

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Timmy Horton’s and the Badly Handled Coffee Order, Part Four

I hate to see anyone die in fast food altercation, and I didn’t expect to see it in my hometown. This incident seems like Detroit-level shit. But as someone who has worked retail, things could have been handled better, but they weren’t. So we have a dead woman, two very young employees who probably are too young to exercise impulse control (a 20-year-old shift manager? Are you fucking kidding me?), and Tim Horton’s, who probably didn’t bother with any training as to how to deal with these situations, should they come up. Usually, the only training is, “call the manager.” Well, when the manager is 20 years old, that doesn’t make me feel very confident.

When I worked at Lowe’s, I was hit TWICE by customers. Not in the face, but I got whacked in the shoulder by someone upset that the coupon we found in a box of trash bags happened to be expired. I also got swatted by someone wielding a set of temporary blinds.

And I can’t forget about the various men/little boys who have barged behind the paint desk, or the woman who accused me of not sealing the paint can lids on properly. Lady, that wasn’t me. I hammed those suckers ON. I always wanted management to put small doors that could LOCK on the little pass-throughs that split the paint desk into four sections. Frequently, the little plastic chains were never hooked, and anyone could unhook it even if they were hooked.

Read part three here: https://nowaylaowai.home.blog/2026/05/24/timmy-horton-and-the-badly-handled-drive-thru-coffee-order-part-three/

Read part two here: https://nowaylaowai.home.blog/2026/05/23/timmy-horton-and-the-badly-handled-drive-thru-coffee-order-part-two/

Read part one here: https://nowaylaowai.home.blog/2026/05/22/timmy-horton-and-the-badly-handled-drive-thru-coffee-order/

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Timmy Horton and the Badly Handled Drive-Thru Coffee Order, Part Three

What’s wild is that there’s no statements or anything from the staff at Tim Horton’s. It’s very possible they were told not to talk to the press.

But the customer died, and no one has been charged. The coroner is supposedly doing his thing. Apparently the woman had heart problems. And the city is divided.

The case has many interesting aspects, I think. The woman’s heart condition. The ages of the staff involved. The videos that have been circulating. Claims of racial discrimination (the customer was a 75-year-old black female.) The Go Fund Me for Anita Grayson’s family. A family member claiming that Ms. Grayson was an actual terrible person, and was abusive. Customer service. And the fact that so many different people have so many different interpretations of what went down.

There’s also claims of false narratives, anger at Tim Horton’s employees, anger at the woman herself, notes of “FAFO” criticisms of Baby Boomers, and also, “all this for a cup of coffee?” And as one of my friends on Facebook said, “and the coffee ain’t that good.”

So WHO WAS at fault?

Read part two here: https://nowaylaowai.home.blog/2026/05/23/timmy-horton-and-the-badly-handled-drive-thru-coffee-order-part-two/

Read part one here: https://nowaylaowai.home.blog/2026/05/22/timmy-horton-and-the-badly-handled-drive-thru-coffee-order/

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Timmy Horton and the Badly Handled Drive-Thru Coffee Order, Part Two

The 20-year-old then goes after the customer, and they end up on the dining room floor. The 17-year-old and another employee (could be male, not sure) walk out into the dining room and attempt to pull the 20-year-old off the customer. There is a fourth employee who appears behind the counter, as well as a customer on a cell phone.

The 20-year-old is dragged behind the counter, and the 17-year-old takes what looks like the customer’s bag (looked like a small lunch cooler-type bag) and sort of tosses it toward the front door, but didn’t quite make it. The 17-year-old, now behind the counter, yells one last thing at the woman, who is still on the floor. The woman gets up on her own, and grabs something on the floor. Reports say it was a fistful of hair pulled out of the 20-year-old’s scalp. The video stops with the woman now seated, but her feet and legs are the only things visible in the camera frame. The male customer is still there at the counter, probably 20 feet away, on the phone. The video source I used is visible here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k6uu7aJM2U. It was posted by the Fort Wayne Police Department, with a pinned comment saying, “This is store security video. There is no audio.”

A few minutes later the woman died.

Missed the first post? Read it here: https://nowaylaowai.home.blog/2026/05/22/timmy-horton-and-the-badly-handled-drive-thru-coffee-order/

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Timmy Horton and the Badly Handled Drive-Thru Coffee Order

So my hometown made the news, and is it ever a juicy story.

Tim Horton’s is a Canadian coffee shop chain that made its way into Fort Wayne several years ago. I guess there were a few locations around the city, but there’s just one now. It’s near the ice rink built on the north side of the city.

I remember eating at that location, I think, a couple of times. I love ham and cheese sandwiches, especially if the cheese is Swiss. I’d get a sandwich, warm potato chips, and a Coke. Maybe some Tim Bits as well.

Anyway, about a couple weeks ago, an older woman went into the shop because staff had incorrectly made her order. She’d ordered something in the drive through, but went into the shop to correct it.

That’s when things went south. Some videos claims she “stormed” into the shop, but the footage I saw shows a woman just walking into the shop. She went to the counter, then waited at the part of the counter that had one of those little swinging doors that silently say, “Employees only beyond this point.” The woman (reports say she was 75 with a heart condition) was right in front of the door when she began gesticulating in a manner that suggests she was monumentally pissed her order was wrong. There’s no audio—the footage is supposedly from the one camera posted in the dining area—but the position of her right hand and the pointing finger would indicate she wasn’t politely asking for her order to be corrected.

The footage isn’t exactly top quality. There’s only one camera in the dining room, and it shows the woman’s left side. Anita Grayson was her name. An employee, supposedly 17 years old, moves a bit closer to explain the situation, and her body language indicates she wasn’t responding in the most calm way either. Here’s where it gets a bit confusing.

It’s Okay, the Kids are Minding the Store

The 17-year-old employee, who had dark hair, was talking to the woman from behind the counter and the little door I told you about previously. Another employee, supposedly a 20-year-old shift manager, comes to try and deescalate the situation. Looks like she has red hair. She steps in between the 17-year-old and the customer, and starts communicating with her. The 17-year-old backs away. The 17-year-old returns on the 20-year-old’s left side, still behind the counter.

It looks like the customer stabs her right index finger in the direction of the 17-year-old, but it’s hard to see if any actual physical contact was made. The customer was trying to lean around the 20-year-old to better address the 17-year-old. As this is happening, the 20-year-old, places a hand on the upper chest of the customer, in a sort of, “hey, you need to calm down” gesture. Was it a shove? I think not. It certainly wasn’t a slap.

The older woman wasn’t having it and shoved the 20-year-old back. The 20-year-old leans against the little door, opening it a bit. Then the older woman punches the 20-year-old in what looks like her nose.

To be continued…

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A Good Day

Invited out to lunch by a friend, neighbor and colleague. The weather was cooperating and the temp was nice too. After a great Mexican meal, we went to a print shop to print out a white paper I wrote for the college. Even though I only had Microsoft Word to work with, I’m very happy with the way the paper printed out. It looks like a little book, which is exactly what I wanted.

Then we went to Ole, a fancy food store. They had sliced turkey again, which was great. Turkey is hard to come by here in China, for some reason. Duck, on the other hand, is EVERYWHERE. I’m getting back on the low-carb wagon and also picked up some bacon as well, plus some veggies.

After we got home, I went for my walk. I found out 15,000 steps is a little over six miles. Since I try to walk 15,000 steps nearly every day, I’m logging way more miles than I thought.

Then I graded some quizzes.

Today was just right.

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An Ugly American

I’ve been lucky enough to avoid Americans here in China. The last one I really had to deal with who got on my nerves was back in 2021. She was so pampered and spoiled, I couldn’t believe it. It’s taught me a lesson to reserve judgment on meeting new people. I need to spend some time with them the first few weeks to really see how they are. When I saw how she treated the security guard at our school, that really soured me on her. And how she felt she needed to hire a private driver, because the Didi (Chinese Uber) drivers couldn’t understand her. What she needed was an apartment. But because she’d been living in West Palm Beach with her parents, expected deluxe accommodations in China. I thought since I was moving out she could take over my apartment, but I guess the “unfinished” (her words, not mine) bathroom and the few odd rats scurrying around the delivery boxes near the outside staircase put her off. The bathrooms here frequently are all one room. It didn’t bother me—I just put up a shower curtain and dealt with it. But it wasn’t good enough for her. The last thing I was going to do was remodel a bathroom in an apartment that isn’t even mine.

Anyway, yesterday I ran into another Ugly American. I was at McDonald’s, and I noticed him while I was waiting for my food. He was walking around the dining room. He had a big pair of headphones covering his ears. He drifted over to where I had my stuff, but he veered back over to the other side of the dining room and picked out a table.

I was waiting for my already paid-for food, but he freaked me out with his constant pacing. Had I been in the United States, I would have walked out the restaurant.

I had to wait a little bit longer for my food than normal. The restaurant wasn’t crowded, so I think it might have been lack of workers. After a longer than usual wait, I finally got my food.

An Indiana Pacer?

The pacer guy went up to the counter and was arguing about something. It was puzzling to me, because the guy was an American—I could tell by the accent and the cursing. Why he wasn’t using a translator app was a mystery, unless he didn’t want to interrupt whatever he was listening to. He was insisting the cup of fries they set on his tray wasn’t “large”. He kept saying “da! Da!” That means big. After they finally brought him a big cup of fresh out of the fryer fries, he grumbled they “always try to fucking cheat him here.”

I wanted to tell him if that was the case, he should try another McDonald’s. They are literally all over the place. There was another one a block down the street.

But I didn’t. I wanted to eat my food in peace. But the guy seemed strange to me. He looked way too old to become a teacher. He wasn’t dressed very well, so it wasn’t like he was some executive in town that wanted familiar food.

He was unnerving though. The constant pacing before he got his food, yelling at staff, ugh. In the USA, this happens every day pretty much. But in China, people are pretty calm about stuff. Even ebike/auto accidents are more civilized than this, and much more is at stake.

It made me realize how safe I feel here and how much I take it for granted. I know that when I step into a restaurant, I won’t be gunned down. I won’t be overhearing American men who seemed a bit wired, and anxious about their damn French fries.

I felt so bad for the staff I went up and told them I was sorry about the angry guy. But really, either use a translation app, or learn the language. Because yelling at someone in a foreign language is going to make you seem like an asshole. Dude had a cell phone, but maybe he didn’t have a translation app, because, being American, he probably assumed everyone in China speaks English.

So You’re an American? Bye!

It’s funny, some of my Chinese acquaintances assume I’d welcome speaking to Americans because I’m an American, but no. I’m fed up with Karens, Chads, the violence, the stupidity, and people who don’t give a shit about putting together a decent outfit. I saw a photo on Facebook of a French guy who had an effortless, but cool-looking outfit, and I’m like, YEAH!

The guy at Micky D’s had a face like a melting candle, and greasy hair, and headphones like he was a sound engineer. I don’t know why, but those made him look extra dorky. Whatever he was listening too certainly wasn’t mellow, with the way he was pacing.

And I’m not kidding. If I see someone pacing like that in a fast-food restaurant back in the states and I’ve paid for my food and I’m just waiting for it, I’m getting the fuck out. He probably didn’t have a gun, because it was China, but they still let any damn fool buy a machete here.

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Hong Kong Diary, Day Six

May 4, 2026

Another GREAT trip to Hong Kong. Train was delayed, but only by about six minutes or so. Some little kid was screaming; I went to see what was going on because she sounded awful. She eventually calmed down, but her mother thanked me for being concerned. Apparnently, mom forgot to pack yogurt! The rest of the train ride was uneventful.

Got another bag of Cheetos crunch, and nearly ate all of them. The ones they sell on the mainland are steak-flavored. I LIKE steak, but leave the snacks alone. Cheetos, should taste like CHEESE. Now, my ankles are swollen. That’s never happened before, welcome to old age, I guess.

Otherwise, I feel fine. Blood pressure good. Over 28,000 steps walked yesterday, which doesn’t really surprise me, but may be the most steps I’ve ever taken in a day. Forgot to mention that S. and I went to the Formula One Grand Prix museum on Sunday. They had all sorts of interactive things to try, and since I love to drive, I had to try pretty much all of them. I plan to send $1000 USD home come payday. Had nearly $2000 HKD left, but left some money as a tip at the hostel, and then kept a few bucks to fund the next trip to Hong Kong. I have $459 HKD in total, which includes the $175 that I already had, but forgot to take with me. Can’t believe I forgot about that.

Met a nice guy from Singapore. Let’s see how long THAT friendship lasts. Added some funds to my various envelopes, so I’m that much closer to a plane ticket home and new glasses.

So… the Macau Grand Prix Museum. I’ve never been a fan of NASCAR, because I’ve always thought it was tacky. Indy cars have a very definite look, and so do Formula One cars. I’ve been to the Indy 500, but have yet to experience a Formula One race. It just looks glamourous, driving at top speed through some super-cool city. So here are some photos from the museum.

Yes, that is a genuine wax figure.
Another wax figure. These were pretty damn realistic.I think this is one of the coolest cars I’ve ever seen.
They had motorcycles too. I was surprised there was no tread on the tires.