Information from Seattle Police Blotter

Seattle police arrested a 33-year-old woman on Thursday after she reportedly stole hot coffee from a West Seattle gas station and then threw the cup of joe at a clerk when she was asked to pay.

Officers responded to the gas station in the 5400 block of Delridge Way Southwest on April 10 at about 9:17 p.m. to find a 45-year-old employee wet and smelling of coffee with a bright red face, neck, and chest. He told Seattle police he was in severe pain.

The man working in the gas station told investigators the 33-year-old woman came into the store and lingered for about 15 minutes without buying anything. The employee reported the woman then went to a coffee station and filled two cups with hot coffee and left the store with one of the cups without paying. The second cup was abandoned at the counter.

The gas station employee told Seattle police officers he followed the woman outside asking her to pay for the coffee. She responded by throwing the hot beverage directly at the employee’s face and upper chest. The woman then ran across the street into an apartment building also in the 5400 block of Delridge Way Southwest.

Seattle police found her and detained her. She was arrested. The 33-year-old woman told police she threw the coffee in self-defense.

The suspect was booked into the King County Jail for Investigation of Robbery.

Seattle Fire Department medics responded to the scene to provide medical aid to the 45-year-old gas station employee. He declined to go to the hospital.