Know where I can find...?

Security is a marvelous thing. Being at the main branch in the downtown area, we have had some alarming events occur. Recently our library invested in its own security force. We have updated cameras, radios, new uniforms and a new chief of security.

He happens to be the retired chief of police as well. He is familiar with most of our patrons who go between the jail and the homeless shelter. He knows them by name, and they all know him as well.

On Monday, a colleague was standing at the desk, with the chief next to her. They were directly in front of the main entrance – you could walk in and straight back to ask them a question. He was in uniform, complete with security badge, sidearm and shoulder-mounted radio.

A patron approached the desk and asked her, “Do you know where I can get some szckek?”

She thought surely he did not say what she heard, so she asked, “I’m sorry – I didn’t understand you. Could you repeat your question?”

“I said, do you know where I can get some chleak?” He looked irritated.

She handed him some paper and a pencil. “I’m so sorry; I still can’t understand you. Could you write it down for me?” He turned and stomped off, muttering under his breath.

The chief turned to her and said, “You know what he was asking, don’t you?”

“Well, I thought I did, “ she said. “But with you standing here…”

“I know!” he laughed. “But what he said was, ‘Do you know where I can get some crack?’.”

She told me the story and then asked me, “Do I LOOK like I would know where you could get some crack? And if I did, would I be standing behind a desk telling people? Next to a cop?”

I told you that people think we have everything. I wonder if somebody told him that the library….?

Comments

[Vampire Librarian]

I am so envious. My library's version of security is me with a newspaper rod.