A Perth man queued for 16 hours on the coldest night of the year to be the first drive-thru customer at the new Tim Hortons restaurant in Dundee.
Robert McLeod arrived in his car at the branch, just off Kingsway East, at 3pm on Sunday to make sure he was the lucky recipient of free coffee for a year.
He told The Courier his marathon wait in temperatures as cold as -5°C was partly because of his love of the Canadian firm’s coffee – and partly because he had nothing better to do.
Robert, 59, said: “I’m in the building trade and knew I had the day off today because it’s freezing cold.
“Over the weekend I thought, ‘Well, I’m not going to be doing anything’ so I thought I’d be as well to come through and wait.
“I live in Perth and visit the branch there a lot. I love their coffees. They’re brilliant.”
‘It’s going to save me a lot’
Also claiming free coffee for a year for being first in the restaurant itself when it opened at 7am was local man Farhan Mohammad.
The 27-year-old works at the Department for Work and Pensions office in the city and started queuing at the front door at 4am.
He said: “I was debating coming because I only really became a coffee drinker about five or six months ago but they have some really nice coffees here.
“I’ve been to quite a few down south, like in Manchester, and there are the branches in Perth and Dunfermline. Whenever I see one I make sure I grab something.
“The office is just around the corner so I can come here on my way to work and on my way home.
“The money adds up through the year so it’s going to save me a lot and I love the coffee. You can’t go wrong, can you?”
The Dundee branch is the 16th Tim Hortons store to open in Scotland.
As part of the opening day promotions, the first 100 customers also received a free breakfast meal.
It came as the Met Office confirmed it had been the coldest night of the year so far in Scotland – with temperatures dipping as low as -15°C in some rural areas of Tayside.
