When a SWAT team arrived outside Cilla’s Coffeehouse on Tuesday morning, owner Mary Ellen Blue said her regulars wondered whether she was being taken captive.
About 50 members of the regional Metropolitan Law Enforcement Council SWAT team arrived at the downtown shop with sirens blaring and lights flashing.
But it wasn’t a raid. It was a support mission to help the family-owned business that has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.
“We were overwhelmed. It was pretty amazing. They just kept coming in by the dozen,” Blue, 58, said Wednesday.
The SWAT team, wearing masks and dressed in olive-green uniforms, lined up outside and came in one by one for about 45 minutes, keeping a 6-foot social distance because of the pandemic.
“They came in for a $3 cup of coffee and left a $100 tip. There were $100…
