Just How Badly Do You Need That Book?

Yet another story from a co-worker who was laughing so hard about this one that she called me at home on my day off to tell me about it.

We have many older patrons who visit the library daily to get their free coffee, read the paper, take their morning constitutional in the latrine and perhaps even nap.  Unless they snore or start to drool, we generally leave the nappers alone.  Though, sometimes I want to wake them up just because I want to take a nap, dammit!

So, one of these patrons, an older gentleman who used to come in to my shop when I had it open (sigh) is not one of the happiest campers.  (He loves telling me how he wishes my shop were still open, that he misses it, etc., but when I was open, he complained that he couldn't smoke in my place and the coffee was too expensive.)  On this particular day, said patron grabbed one of the new non-fiction titles and sat down to read it in one of our comfy armchairs.  My co-worker said she walked by at one point and he'd fallen asleep, book open on his chest.  She let him be and walked back to the desk.

About 30 minutes or so later, the man approached the desk.  He mentioned the book he'd been reading and said he'd really been enjoying it.  So much, in fact, that he'd planned on checking it out and taking it home.  However, he must've dropped it during his unplanned siesta because it wasn't in his lap when he woke up.  None of the librarians had picked the book up, so my lovely co-workers searches for the book in the OPAC. 

IT HAD BEEN CHECKED OUT!!!!

A lady had taken the book OUT OF HIS LAP and checked it out.  Just how badly did this lady need to know about the history of our state?  Seriously?

Finders keepers, snoozers weepers.