January
1, 2020 – UPDATE:
In
January 2014, I was working as the manager at the Adrian Branch Library. During the first two wintery months of the
year, I decided to have a Library Crime Spree. It was supposed to last
about six weeks. Best laid plans. The Crime Spree lasted for
months, culminating in identifying, capturing, and a court appearance (thanks
to the willing participation of our county judge). The whole project
lasted almost a year. After the little,
mischievous “perpetrators” – ie: the Library Dragons - paid their debt to
society, they became a permanent addition to our Library and all of the events
and programs. Well, time goes on and
change in inevitable. In September 2019, I
bid farewell to the Library. As I moved
on, so did the Dragons. It is time to
retire this blog – but not the Dragons, who can now be found at their new blog,
along with ALL of the posts chronicling the original crime spree, and all the
adventure since that time, so please check out the new blog, My Dragon Adventures. And
here is the very first post that started the Library Dragons’ Crime Spree:
Monday, January 27, 2014, seemed like every other Monday at the Adrian Branch Library, until Librarian Meredith Vaselaar entered the building. It was then that Vaselaar discovered that someone - or something - had entered the Library over the weekend.
Vaselaar called in Chief of Police Shawn Langseth to take a look at the scene of the crime. Langseth observed that all twenty-one volumes of the Library's copy of the "New Book of Knowledge" encyclopedia were no longer on the shelf, but stacked in a peculiar fashion on the floor. In addition, there was a trail of cookie crumbs - and uneaten cookie bits - scattered on and near the pile of books.
Strange, indeed. The Librarian was at a loss as to what could have happened. "We never stack books on the floor in that manner," insisted Vaselaar. "And the cookies are kept shut up tight for our afternoon coffee break." Chief Langseth looked closely at the evidence, trying to find fingerprints, but to no avail. Had the culprit(s) worn gloves? With the exception of the books and the cookies, nothing else seemed amiss.
"Do you have any ideas as to the identity of the suspects," Vaselaar asked Langseth. The Chief took care not to point too many fingers, but had one possible suspect. "It looks like the type of crime that Cookie Monster would perpetrate," said Langseth, "although this crime does not follow Mr. Monster's usual practice . . . if it HAD been him, I doubt there would be any cookie crumbs left!" A valid observation.
Other possibilities include, but are not limited to: Elves? Fairies? Sprites? Leprechauns? Shape-Shifters? Hobbits?
As soon as Langseth completed his investigation, Vaselaar cleaned the crime scene and was able to open the doors to the public at 11:00 a.m., right on schedule.
Questions remain: Who is responsible for moving the encyclopedias at the Library? Who was so hungry that he/she/they took the time to have a snack? Why would he/she/they leave any cookie bits at all? And didn't their mother ever tell them to clean up after themselves?
