St. Petersburg, FL resident Rob Rowen liked to visit his local Starbucks regularly. But now he’s no longer welcome at any Starbucks location ever again.
According to WTSP, Rowen received an official letter from Starbucks that bans him for life from every location on the planet. What did this man do that was so offensive? He says he kept asking anyone who had illegally parked in his local store’s handicapped space to move.
Rowen says the manager of the South Dale Mabry store in Tampa had banned him from just that store, and that Rowen expected to get a letter from Starbucks corporate in the mail. He thought they’d want to apologize. Instead, he got a letter saying he’s banned for life from ever setting foot in a Starbucks again.
What made Rowen turn into a handicapped-parking vigilante? It turns out his son-in-law has muscular dystrophy and uses a power wheelchair; he often has trouble finding a place to park because of illegally parked vehicles.
So Rowen took action at the Starbucks he used to frequent. He says he threatened to embarrass those who had illegally parked by telling everyone around that they had parked illegally. He also took photos, and got at least one woman ticketed by the cops.
But after a customer complained, both the store manager and the Starbucks district manager determined that Rowen was in the wrong, because he was harassing people.
A Starbucks spokesperson named Laurel Harper told WTSP,
Those illegal parkers should just be glad Rowen didn’t take his public shaming campaign to the next level, like this man in Brazil:
[via WTSP]
UPDATE: A Starbucks spokesperson reached out to First We Feast and said, “We understand Mr. Rowen’s concerns. We have been speaking with him about this and have resolved the matter. Mr. Rowen is welcome in any of our stores. We will work with him to improve the parking situation at the store and create additional awareness and understanding of this important topic.”
Looks like Mr. Rowen has come out victorious.