[Publib] Dealing with patrons who steal

[Connie Jo Ozinga]

If all they were stealing were coffee......

 

We have someone (someones?) stealing large quantities of toilet paper on
a regular basis.

 

We finally ID'd the guy who was cutting DVD security cases open with a
box knife and then trying to sell the DVDs at the Mission where he
lived.  He knows we know, and someone now keeps an eye on him whenever
he is I the building.

 

We now have a security picture of the woman who has taken numerous CDs
from one of our branch libraries (33 last time she was in which was when
we got the picture), posted around the system.

 

We would like to ID the young woman (we are quite sure of that) who is
consistently destroying new Manga and YA graphic novels by slicing out
the pages and leaving the covers in the trash in various women's
restrooms.  This one has been going on for months and so far all our
efforts to ID her have failed.

 

I love our security cameras, and as we use them to help us deal with
these kinds of issues, I wonder what we did without them.  But I just
can't see putting them in the restrooms.

 

Summer of 2007 we had over 100 bikes stolen from the racks at our five
locations, bike thefts continue regularly.  Doesn't matter if they're
locked.  Doesn't matter if it's central city or suburban branches.

 

Last week someone stole a little network hub from one of the branches,
left behind the electric cord.

 

Elkhart County currently has the fourth highest unemployment rate in THE
ENTIRE COUNTRY.  Life is tough here these days, food banks are
overwhelmed.  I would prefer you steal from the food bank donation
barrels we have put at each of our locations.

 

Connie

 

Connie Jo Ozinga, Director  cjo at elkhart.lib.in.us
<blocked::mailto:cjo at elkhart.lib.in.us>  

(574)522-3333  www.myepl.org
Elkhart Public Library Elkhart, IN  46516

 

The Elkhart Public Library provides access to resources which inform,
educate, enlighten and entertain our diverse community.....Books are
just the beginning.

 

 

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