This Boston Dunkin' Was The Scene Of A Hot Coffee Crime

Hot coffee is a lot of things to a lot of people: a morning necessity, an afternoon jolt, a coffee-break comfort. Hot coffee can also be dangerous. Anyone who remembers the famous McDonald's hot coffee case from 1992, when a 79-year-old woman spilled hot coffee on her legs and was badly burned, per Eat This, Not That!, knows that there is such a thing as "too hot" when it comes to coffee. Given that Dunkin' serves coffee at up to 200 F, according to Delishably, a cup of searing hot java can surely cause pain, and even some injury, if it meets the skin.

At a Dunkin' a few miles outside of Boston, police were recently dispatched when a patron's hot cup of Joe became a weapon. An altercation between two customers at the store resulted in 23-year-old Dion Millsap being arrested, per Today. Millsap had, according to reports, become "belligerent" in the store, and his issue with the other patron escalated to the point that he hurled hot java at the man. He was found by police a few blocks away, after attempting to elude the officers, per Boston.com. He was later arraigned and charged with Assault and Battery with a dangerous weapon and disorderly conduct. What was the dude's issue? Why did he feel the need to hurl hot coffee at someone standing in line at a Dunkin' Donuts at 8:30 in the morning? Take a guess.

As some readers might have guessed, the issue behind this latest incident of violence in a public place was mask-related (via Boston.com). The victim was not wearing a mask. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health advises all residents to wear a mask or face covering when not in the home. In Boston, any person older than two years old must wear a mask in an indoor public place, per AARP. The Dunkin' customer did use his shirt to cover his face when confronted about not having a mask but was nonetheless attacked.

So the mask drama continues. A few days prior to the Dunkin' incident, in another suburb of Boston, a disagreement over masks led to the attack of a pizzeria employee. School officials have seen unprecedented levels of verbal, and even physical assaults, according to a Boston University report, as the mask/anti-mask culture war rages on. Airlines have also felt the mask-malevolence, as 75% of unruly passenger complaints are connected to mask refusals, per CNBC. Meanwhile, more than 700,000 new COVID cases are reported each day, per The New York Times. At a time when many of us are turning to things that bring us comfort to get us through these hard times, we need to come together over coffee, not use it as a weapon. The words "coffee" and "crime" should just not appear together. Let's agree to leave coffee out of the fight, shall we?