The (Potential) Great Escape
Have I mentioned recently how much I despise Chester the (Potential) Molester? Oh, I despise him, all right. A lot. I even despise him when he's trying to do his patronly duty to the best of his abilities by alerting us to the fact that the book he's returning is late.
Mrs. B saw him coming up the walk Monday, (ARGH!!! MONDAY!!!!) and warned me of his approach. I mentally tallied the preteen girl population in the library and came up with 0. Then, in he walked, making a bee-line for the circ desk, where I was stationed. Chester been smelling kind of funky the past couple times he's been in and certainly did right then. Oh, sure. Why not? We've got plenty of other smelly patrons already, so why don't we just add a smelly and (potentially) dangerous one to boot?
Chester, terror in his eyes, plunked a book down on the counter and said, "Mumblemumblemumblemumble."
"Excuse me?"
"Mumblemumble sorry mumblemumble late book mumble fee."
Ah, wonderful! Chester had an overdue! I hoped it was really really late, too, because I would stick him for every last penny he owed as a fine. Most of the time, we don't concern ourselves much about fines unless patrons point it out to us, but I would gladly concern myself with fines for Chester. I hoped he didn't have any money on him, either, cause I would cheerfully try to get him banned for non-payment. That one was a long shot, admittedly, but I'd take what I could get.
I opened Chester's book and scanned the barcode. It indeed popped up as 16 days overdue, but no fine amount was listed. Or rather, the fine amount read $0.00. What the hell?! Did I have the grace flag on? No. Had this book somehow been renewed in the milisecond between when I scanned it and when it checked in? No. Did the computer just not want Chester's money? No, the computer wants everybody's money. I stared at the screen for several seconds, trying to make sense of it.
Finally, and with great reluctance, I had to say, "Yeah, it's late, but there doesn't seem to be any fine." I showed Chester the screen.
Chester thanked me—actually THANKED me, dammit—and then slouched from the building.
Only after he was gone did I realize why the book had not drawn a fine: it had not been checked out to him in the first place. Instead, it was checked out to the community college as an interlibrary loan he'd done through them. We don't charge fines on interlibrary loans and the computer knew that rule.
Curses! Foiled again!
3 comments:
Rats! Better luck next time. Hopefully he'll take out a book of your own next time around!
Oh, my goodness. I am not happy that you have a (potential) child molestor in your library, nor am I happy that (zoinks!) he avoided your fines. However, I am relieved to read your post and hear that it is not unacceptable to keep an eye on certain (potential) problem patrons. We once had a guy in who was currently being charged with sexually assaulting patients in his care in a local hospital (if you can imagine anything so horrible). So he shows up in our library and starts chatting up female patrons. We recognized him from his news mug shot, and proceeded to tell all staff to keep an eye out and watch themselves and patrons. The real twist in the story is: I worked with a totally clueless guy, who once he got wind that we were watching the chatter, asked us if we "thought that was right." I thought I was going to assault my coworker right then and there! So thank you for setting my mind at ease that watching for even potential problems is not a capital offense. Oh, and better luck next time on nabbing him on fines.
God, he mucked up the ILL system. You should flag his record for that. I hope you contact the community college to tell them you got your book because otherwise they're going to be wringing their hands looking for it.
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