Police department billed over 40K for “free” coffee

Chief Bill Roberts of the Instigo, ME, Police department got a bad start to his work week this week. Shortly after arriving to his office the owner of Jitter, a local coffee shop, came in to present the chief with a coffee bill for $43,800.

Bruce Edwards the owner of Jitter told the chief “This is not retaliation this is just good business. Your officers did not hold up their end of the social contract so that voids said contract. As such your agency now needs to reimburse me for all the years I held up my end of the deal.”

Chief Roberts was dumbfounded by the bill. He asked for clarification but Edwards walked off with out another word. The bill is itemized as 4 coffees per day, average price $3, seven days a week for ten years.

“I pulled out my calculator and sure enough the math added up to $43,800 worth of coffee. So then I had to check in to why he would do this. That word “retaliation” resonated with me. Sure enough checking the computer logs, I found Mr. Edwards had been arrested for Drunk Driving on Friday night.”

A review of the footage from both the dash camera and the body camera the arresting officer had on, shows the incident. Mr. Edwards was observed driving without headlights at 11pm, he was also swerving across the centerline, then back into his lane. During Field Sobriety Testing Edwards was swaying and stumbled multiple times.

Audio from the footage of the traffic stop has Edwards making statements like.
“You guys know me… I’m all good here”.
“Stop wasting time with these tests, we both know you can’t arrest me… just call a cab… OK”
“Do you know who I am… you can’t do this… you owe me… are you listening YOU OWE ME”
“You assholes are going to pay… you can’t take and take free stuff and then renege on what the entails.”

We called Mr. Edwards at his coffee shop. He was only willing to go on the record saying this. “I think I under quoted that bill. $3 per coffee is low. Most of the cops ask for extras added into their coffee, I bet some guys walk out of here with $6 cups a coffee. Not to mention we got days were guys come back multiple times, so I am sure most days I am giving out more than four cups per day.”

Chief Roberts told us that up till now he never felt the need for a policy on gratuities. “I trust my officers to not abuse a system of getting free stuff. Turns out it was not the officers I needed to worry about. It was the business owners. Never thought of a free coffee as being a “social contract” that allows special privileges. But I guess that is how the business community, or at least one owner here in town, sees it. Turns out it is true that there is no such thing as a free cup of coffee.”

The city attorney for Instigo, ME, is reviewing the invoice and city policies. No decisions have been made at this time how the city will proceed with the bill. The police chief has already sent a memo about not taking gratuities and is drafting a permeant policy to go into effect soon.