A man has been caught on camera throwing hot coffee at a cafe worker, after a woman refused to let him pay for her drink.
The customer appeared to fly into a rage when the worker told him his offer had been turned down, and he responded by throwing two cups of coffee at the staff member.
The incident was caught on CCTV at the Soul Bowl in Australia and now New South Wales Police are investigating.
Owner Lily told reporters her worker simply respected the young woman’s wishes to buy her own coffee and instead had the hot coffee thrown in his face.
“He had a good hit to the face.
"It wasn’t third-degree burns but it was a burn,” she told 2GB Radio.
“The impact marked his face, his clothes were all wet, coffee everywhere.
“When I got there I could see the internal hurt in this guy’s heart and his eyes. He was devastated.”
The video of the incident was uploaded to the cafe's Instagram page with an appeal to help find the person involved.
It read: "This morning one of our staff members was a victim of assault, where for NO REASON he had hot coffee aggressively thrown at his face after being sworn at, intimidated, bullied and abused with racial slurs. Disgusted is an understatement. We feel sick. Furious!
"Soul Bowl staff have worked tirelessly through pandemics, lockdowns, restrictions, short staffing issues & at Rosehill - rain, hail or shine… literally! We are outside! They show up, happy, energetic and ready to give their best, all day, everyday.
"To have someone just wake up on the wrong side of life and take it out on our staff making them feel unsafe is something we will absolutely NOT TOLERATE!!!
"We are asking the community to please help us and the police locate this person. All communications will be kept 100% confidential but this person will be facing the FULL brunt of the law.
"Not on our watch mate."
NSW Police said it attended the cafe just after 11am yesterday.
A spokeswoman said: “The customer fled prior to police arrival,” a police spokesperson said.
“Inquiries continue to identify and locate the man depicted who is described as being of Mediterranean/Middle Eastern appearance, aged in his 30s, with short black hair and a beard.
“He is shown wearing a white and grey ‘Champion’ hooded jumper at the time.”
