Starbucks worker saw girl being pestered by a stranger and slipped her a secret note on the coffee cup

A woman, 18, went to Starbucks to enjoy coffee while studying, but instead, ended up with a stranger pestering her. When baristas at the coffee shop noticed this, they immediately stepped in to ensure the intruder didn't make the girl uncomfortable. Brandy Roberson, the teen's mom, shared the incident on Facebook but later deleted her post, perhaps to protect her daughter's identity.

According to Roberson, her daughter was studying by herself at the Starbucks when an adult man approached her. "It sounded like he was quite animated. I believe this is what alerted the employees. He had also not come in with my daughter, so they knew she probably did not know him," she said. Worried about the teenager's safety, the baristas at the shop handed her a cup of hot chocolate with a message on it. "Are you okay? Do you want us to intervene? If you do, take the lid off the cup," the text on it read. Roberson's daughter appreciated the staff's gesture and made sure she let them know she felt safe. "She looked up, and the employees were already staring at her. She signalled to the employees that she was okay," the mom told 10 Tampa Bay. Eventually, when the stranger realized the teen was in fact communicating with the staff, he left her side.

"She was holding the cup and knew that I would love that someone did that for her. It made me feel so grateful that the Starbucks employees were watching out for her. As a mom, that is my worst fear — that something would happen to my child and nobody would be there to help," TODAY quoted Roberson. Moving on, the teenager's mother said she never thought her story would become so viral and that she only wanted to thank the thoughtful employees for watching out for her daughter.

"I am incredibly grateful to the staff there. I hope that we can all learn from them and be willing to help anyone who seems to need help," she said. Despite awareness, even today, women aren't really safe. In fact, a survey conducted by NORC in spring 2024 found that one in five women, i.e, 20% first experienced sexual harassment or assault even before they turned 13. But wait, that's not the end. Most often, the women said that when these incidents happened publicly, nobody helped or stepped in to ensure they were okay. 

However, not everybody is the same. In fact, when a flight attendant suspected a teen girl was in danger, she swung into action and saved her from human trafficking. According to the NY Daily News, Shelia Fedrick, a flight attendant with Alaska Airlines, noticed that the girl had a disheveled look with greasy blonde hair, and she was accompanied by an older man who boarded with her in Seattle. "(The girl) looked like she had been through pure hell," said Fedrick. Moreover, when the flight attendant tried engaging with the girl, the man seemed defensive, so she decided to approach her differently. "I left a note in one of the bathrooms. She wrote back on the note and said, 'I need help.'" Later, when Fedrick read the note, she immediately alerted the pilot, who then informed the cops. Finally, when the plane landed, the cops took the man into custody and rescued the girl. 

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