Just a day at the beach

When you think of a library, you have in mind, a quiet, peaceful place to relax. We, here at the local library, are about to shatter your dreams of serenity at our library. Enter the librarians. We are friendly (most of the time), and love to provide typical services to our normal patrons.

However.... Not all patrons we encounter are normal. In fact, some are so off the radar they might as well come from the books.

For example, a woman returned a brand new book during the summer. Let me emphasize that this book had never been checked out, or even touched by a patron before her. So, she returns it; it's full of sand. You open the book, and sand falls out. There is even sand in the clear plastic cover, which is over the book jacket. I know from experience that it is almost impossible to get anything in these covers. Anyway... we asked her how she got sand in the book. Did she take the book to the beach?

The lady says she hasn't been to the beach this year at all.

*Note: she was wearing a swimsuit and flipflops, and her hair was dripping wet.

"Are you sure you didn't take the book to the beach?"

She said she was sure she didn't even go to the beach. She then had the temerity to claim that she had checked it out like that.

*Insert cricket chirp to fill the awkward silence...*

Remember, this is a brand new book that we had just put on the shelves...but of course we can't just accuse the patron of lying, because that makes us look bad, and makes the patrons angry. So, we informed the woman that she has to pay a fine to fix and clean the book, which she was not very happy about.

Just another day at the library...