Wisconsin Coffee Shop Calls Police On Health Department Official

Early this week there was a story of a coffee shop outside of Madison that made a child cry for wearing a mask in their "mask-free" business. Guess what? This coffee shop is making headlines again for another wrong reason.

It all started in Middleton, Wisconsin, outside of Madison, when a former Rockford family ventured into the business wearing face masks, as required by the Dane County health department. No problem, right? Wrong, the coffee shop (Helbachs) posted a sign on their entrance touting their "mask free zone".

At that point, the story ended with an employee shaming the family, causing a 6-year-old to cry, according to one of the parents' Facebook posts.

No matter how you feel about masks, not cool at all to shame a 6-year-old wearing one. She cried. We were following the Dane County mandate. We will not be back.

The post went viral and became a story in much of Wisconsin. This lead the revelation of complaints resulting in the Dane County Health Department planning to pop by Helbachs to review the operation. It's not the end of the story, though, because there's a part two. On Wednesday, a county health official did indeed make a stop to the coffee shop, according to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (MJS). It didn't go well.

Despite the health official spotting two workers wearing masks, the owner was not. The owner was also not excited about the health department being inside his business. He argued the sign had been removed. Which, I guess, means the health department shouldn't have shown up? But, it still doesn't end there. The story continues with the owner calling Middleton Police on the health department official. The responding officer arrived (and probably shook his or her head in disbelief) but continued to do their job in investigating the situation. The officer confirmed the owner was indeed not happy about the health official being inside his business and claimed to be harassed. He explained this to MJS.

He did not want them in his business, and it was explained to him that they have every right to be there.

The health official told MJS the owner was combative about complying with the department's orders. At this point, there isn't any indication as to whether or not Helbachs has been fined but sometimes tells me this isn't the last of their fight against masks.

The on-going facemasks saga continues. It makes me wonder how the seat belt law would have been discussed had social media existed back then.

JB Love is ½ of  Q98.5's Lil Zim & JB In The Morning, weekday mornings from 5:00 a.m. to 10 a.m. Follow him on Twitter, Instagram.