and speaking of Vegas..

As I have returned from my journeys, I share with you the musings of our own vegas like clientele...

Today, shortly after 11:00am, a man (Robert) walked in and came to the desk to tell Alex and I that his housing complex was bombing for bugs so he would be in the library until about 6pm tonight. He continued to talk about various topics for the next 50 minutes. I sense that there may be something mentally wrong with him.

A few of the stranger things that he said:

1.) He told us that he used to be the reindeers at the store across Ritchie. He said that I probably visited him when I was a child and asked how old I was. I told him, and he said he was sure I would have visited him when I was a child. He wants to be Santa this year.

2.) He told me that he only had $6 to buy food with because he gives all his money away. He said on Veteran's day he had spent $30 on food for 2 homeless veterans. When I told him that I thought that was nice of him he very seriously told me that he is not a nice person. Not a nice person at all.

3.) He said several times (jokingly?) that he was going to steal our magazines. He put some in his bag and said he was going to steal them, and walked through the security gate. He turned around in the lobby and came back and said, “See, I told you I was going to steal them.” I told him that if he had kept walking I would definitely have to call the police on him.

4.) He also told Alex and I that we were beautiful and that men must throw themselves at Alex in particular. He said he liked her sparkly lanyard and when she told him it was a gift he said something along the lines that men like to give gifts to pretty women. I told him that I was the one who gave Alex her lanyard and that stopped his talking for a few moments.

I emailed Brian and Jesse a few times to save us. He walked away when Brian came out front, but came back when Brian went back into the staff room. I was off the desk at 12, and all was quiet for a short period of time.

Around 12:20 Denise came into the backroom to tell me that the man was trying to give Alex a gift. I walked out and saw that he handed her his mother’s World War II dog tag (which he had shown me earlier. He also told me that he had given away his father's tag which he really regretted). She told him she couldn’t accept it, and I told him that she really couldn’t. I tried to hand it back to him but he said he wouldn’t take it, I could throw it away if I wanted to and it was hers and walked away from the desk. We put it in the lost and found. 5 minutes later he came back to the desk to tell me that he was leaving to go to the mall, and that I should tell the other lady (Alex) to wear the tag in memory of his mother. I stated again that she really couldn’t accept it, that we can’t take gifts from customers, and asked him to please take it with him. He said no and left the building.


The library comes in handy sometimes...


On Tuesday evening, an AA County Police detective approached the information desk and asked for assistance. He said that he had a man under arrest for a robbery that took place on Monday evening, Nov. 24. He was arrested based on a photo line-up "identification" by the person who was robbed. The arrested person stated that he was here in the library at the time of the robbery working at a computer. Michelle and I took the detective back to the video camera and quickly brought up images from the time period on Monday night when the robbery took place. It was quickly apparent that the man who had been arrested was in the library during the robbery. Michelle created a disc with two pictures: one at 5:30 p.m. and one a 6 p.m. covering the time when the robbery occurred. The detective took the disc to help clear the accused man. Note--on November 25th the Capital printed an article about the arrest of the man for the robbery and printed his name. On November 26th WBALTV printed an article on their website that stated the individual was released due to "additional case enhancement", and that the police department reached out to the State's Attorney's Office to drop charges against him.