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Brainerd Starbucks Remembers Tim Chapin

260 views · Published 3 December 2012 · 2:46 · Indexed 28 October 2026

Channel: WTVC NewsChannel 9 · 2012 · News & Politics

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by Alyssa Spirato   Some of the people who knew Sergeant Chapin well worked at the local coffee shop, where he stopped every morning - for nearly two years. He visited that Starbucks - the morning he died.Seven days a week, three hundred and sixty five days a year, Sergeant Tim Chapin sat in a Brainerd Starbucks sipping a cup of decaf coffee and reading the daily paper. But more than a year later, all that's left is a memory. An empty chair with a picture above of a man who lost his life protecting you and me."It breaks my heart. Once again, not only because we lose him, but because he leaves behind a family and children," says Starbucks Barista Michael Rosenberg.Rosenberg knew Chapin well. So did then-manager Ed Provost. He remembers the first day he met Chapin."He goes 'ya know, the last manager was here.' I said, 'listen, whatever you guys need, whatever you guys want, I'll take care of you.' So he kinda set the word out, and all of a sudden, Tim started coming in,"' says Provost.Provost says Chapin always got a decaf coffee and a snack and always sat in the same place."He felt at home in there. They felt comfortable and that's what we wanted for all of these guys, was to come in and feel comfortable. It's hard enough the job that they have," says Provost.Provost was on vacation in Florida when he got the call he still can't believe. Chapin lost his life in the line of duty."My first words were, tell me he's not killed. And then Mike Rosemberg said he's gone," says Provost. It wasn't until he got back that the news really sunk in. There at the empty table sat a decaf coffee and a newspaper. All in Chapin's memory."You would look out in the parking lot and you were hoping that you would see a police car, a Chattanooga police car pull up and you would hope to God it was him walking out of it. And that is what hit. His car. Him not coming out," says Provost.

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