Introduction:A recent incident involving a customer occupying a café seat without making a purchase has drawn public attention. A young woman entered a coffee shop carrying large luggage, did not place an order, and occupied multiple tables and chairs to rest for as long as four hours, affecting other customers and disrupting the shop’s operations. After repeated unsuccessful attempts to persuade her, the staff called the police. The police handling of the situation was fraught with complications. This article details the incident and explores the balance between managing public order in cafés and regulating customer behavior.

Recently, a dispute arose in a coffee shop when a customer occupied seats without making any purchases. A woman around twenty years old entered the shop around 2 p.m., carrying a large amount of luggage and spreading her belongings across several seats, ultimately occupying two tables and four chairs.

Upon entering, the woman immediately pulled up the hood of her hoodie to cover her face. She alternated between sitting in the seats and lying down to sleep in the sofa area, never placing an order or showing any intention to make a purchase throughout her stay. It is understood that this coffee shop enforces a policy where customers must order before being seated and also has a minimum spend requirement. Therefore, this customer’s behavior of occupying public resources without consuming anything for an extended period caused considerable distress among the staff.

The staff approached the woman several times to communicate with her, hoping she would either leave voluntarily or make a purchase. However, she did not respond at all and showed no signs of leaving. The woman stayed in the shop for as long as four hours, continuously occupying seats and using the air conditioning, which upset other customers and disrupted the normal operation of the shop.

Considering that the customer had been monopolizing seats for a long time and even sleeping in a public place, which could affect other consumers, the staff, after multiple failed attempts to persuade her, ultimately decided to call the police.

When the police arrived at the scene, they first tried to communicate with the woman, asking about her physical condition and stating that they could arrange for an ambulance if she felt unwell. Despite the police’s persuasion, the woman verbally agreed to leave but did not actually get up. In fact, she tightly gripped the seats, as if “glued” to them, refusing to cooperate with any attempt to move her.

As the woman continued to refuse to leave, the police, having run out of options, decided to take compulsory measures. They attempted to move her off the sofa chair, but even after losing the support of the seat, she still refused to stand up, instead lying down on the floor to resist, further complicating the situation.

In the end, four police officers worked together to physically carry the woman out of the coffee shop. During the process, she struggled continuously, and the officers had to carefully control her limbs to prevent her from injuring herself while resisting. She was then taken to the local police station for further investigation.

The head of the police station stated that when the staff arrived to question her, the woman not only refused to answer any questions but also declined to show her ID and ignored advice to leave on her own. Because her behavior had seriously disrupted the normal operation of the coffee shop, the police had no choice but to take her back to the station in accordance with regulations to verify her identity and clarify the situation.

According to local media reports, the woman is suspected to be an overseas Chinese returning to China and may have been emotionally unstable due to health issues. After being taken to the police station, she reportedly had an emotional outburst, shouting loudly and violently slamming glass doors, which caused considerable headaches for those handling the situation.

The police then attempted to contact her relatives or friends to pick her up, but because she appeared to be living alone and had no family or friends available to assist her immediately, the woman was eventually taken to the hospital by force for examination and observation.

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.