Timbit gate. The war of the doughnuts.

A timbit has grabbed the media’s attention.

London Free Press today. The headline reads: Woman fired from Tim Hortons for giving Timbit to Baby. This is a local story (local to London, that is) about one of those ‘damn, how could they do that’ moments. My guess is that they were looking to terminate this employee — and this was the way to do it.

Everyone knows they give Timbits to dogs and little kids. It’s just what they do. Of course, if you read the story as a stand-alone, it seems harsh… and paints Tim Hortons in a very bad light. The fact that the protagonist is a single mom of four (FOUR!) makes the story all the more bitter (ie good TV).

This was front page news of the London Free Press. I wondered: how the hell did they find out about this? Who contacted the paper? Does she have a friend at the LFP that knows about this? Because this kind of story happens to all of us at one time or another (just change Timbit to underage-hooker for me, I suppose).

Yet then I went to the Toronto Sun. Guess what was on the front page? Same headline. Okay, okay, they’re both owned by the same publisher. Then I went to the Toronto Star. Guess what they have on the front page? The Timbit fiasco.

Did a google search — Toronto Sun, Star, National Post, London Free Press…all with the story of this woman losing her job.

How did this happen? What drew the media to this story? Is it that Tim Horton’s has become a corporate villain? That this woman is in a minimum wage job and was fired? Free Timbits (mmm, timbits).

But then small businesses will take it upon themselves to capitalize on this media frenzy — and hire the woman.

Will they then fire her three months down the road for giving away company computers?

Stay tuned.