This is the kind of thing I deal with a couple times every year, and also every day. The electronic media happens less often; most folks who are going to steal don't think there's much of value at a library, and instead prefer to target big box stores like Borders or even Wal-Mart, where the security can be just as lax if you're willing to run fast. (And sometimes not even that. Loss prevention at Borders is apparently not a huge concern, from talking to a manager some years ago.) Anything on a display rack is there because it's new, and will have a much higher "resale" value down the line. We had one regular who helped her guy friends sell stolen audio books, for instance-- we finally stopped taking her stuff after she brought in duplicates of $70 Robert Jordan audio books and took three bucks in cash for them without even blinking. (A lack of argument is usually a sure sign that the person didn't actually pay for the item in question. It gets tiring hearing customers complain about how little they can get for books at resale, but I'd rather hear the kvetching than guilty silence.)
That nobody noticed these were library books doesn't surprise me much. The "discarded" stamps aren't always on the front cover, and sometimes they're on a front page that can be cut or ripped out. Nevertheless, Bookmans doesn't take library discards for just this reason-- thieves are stupid people, most of the time, and if they thought they could get even 50 cents a book, they'd steal from libraries. As it is, we're the only used book outlet in town (well, besides Craigslist), so the word is pretty much out that it's pointless to bring them in. Irritates the hell out of some folks, but not usually too bad-- they know they bought the book from practically nothing anyway, so not getting anything for a library discard doesn't irk so much. Now, you want to hear some bitching, you talk to college students who are just beginning to realize just how much of a scam is the textbook market . . .
Once again, I'd like to point out that 95+% of the people I deal with are just there for a good book or a DVD or CD to add to their collection. That's part of the reason the shady characters stand out so much, and why they stick in the memory so well.
Ex ignorantia ad sapientiam; e luce ad tenebras
kids used to steal the cd's from our college radio station and sell them to the used record store across the street. why that place had a fabulous selection and the radio station played the crappiest of music. well, one reason anyway. +1
It is easy to buy small plaster models of what you think life is like.
This reminds me of the TZ where Burgess Meredith played a glasses dependent bookworm who survives WWIII and gloats that now he has all of the time in the world to read...until he steps on his own glasses
This guy will have all the time in the world to read...while other prisoners fuck him blind.
It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine
