For a normal person, when someone tells you not to smoke in a non-smoking area, you’d normally apologise and leave to a designated smoking area.

But for one Malaysian man, he couldn’t take being called out and acted out irrationally.

According to Bernama, a man was fined RM1,000 or sentenced to three months’ jail in default after he got angry and slapped a Starbucks employee for telling him not to smoke on the premises.

He can smoke but he can't take the heat

The Starbucks outlet in Jalan Imbi where the incident took place.
Magistrate Mohamed Fared Abdul Latif sentenced Mitchel Glend Samson, 27, who pleaded guilty to a charge of voluntarily causing hurt to Nur Hanisah Abu Hasan, 23, in front of the Starbucks outlet at Plaza Berjaya in Jalan Imbi at 3.20 pm on 13 November.

Samson had earlier told the court that since he wasn’t allowed into the shop due to his high risk status on the MySejahtera app, he took a seat outside of Starbucks while waiting for his friend to buy him coffee.

While waiting, he then lighted up a cigarette within the premises.

Image for illustration purposes only.
“The Starbucks employee then approached me and chided me for smoking. I admit that I was wrong to have raised my hands at her. I apologise and seek a lenient sentence because I have a family in Sabah to support,” he said.

We hope the employee in question is doing okay (physically and mentally), and the man should know that solving conflict with violence isn’t the answer.