Lawsuits

A Police Officer Is Suing Starbucks Because He Burned Himself on Free Coffee

Burned.
Burned. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

North Carolina police lieutenant Matthew Kohr says he suffered serious injuries because Starbucks served him free coffee in a defective cup. Its lid popped off, he claims, and the whole cup sort of “folded in on itself,” causing burns that were allegedly so stressful that they aggravated his Crohn’s disease and ultimately forced removal of part of his intestine. As a result, he’d like $50,000 for the hospital bill, legal fees, and emotional damage.

WRAL reports that Kohr initially sued the barista who served him his coffee, as well as International Paper, the cup’s manufacturer. (Both have since been dropped from the suit.) And Kohr’s wife is part of his suit, too — she claims the injury deprived her of Kohr, a “source of emotional support, her social companion, and her intimate partner.”

Testimony in the trial is supposed to start this week. Local news channel ABC 11 swung by the Raleigh store, which, like many Starbucks locations, gives police officers free coffee, and found customers had little sympathy, perhaps not surprisingly:

[WRAL, ABC11]

A Police Officer Is Suing Starbucks Because He Burned Himself on Free Coffee