The Incorrigible Shouty Old Man

Some people refuse to reform, and some people enable bad behavior. This is the ongoing saga of Shouty and my little library.

A quick recap: Shouty assumed our fine-free overdue item policy meant he could keep books indefinitely without penalty. He ignored the possibility of long-overdue items eventually getting charged as lost items. He neglected to keep his address and phone number current, making it impossible for us to contact him about these issues. And then he threw a tantrum when we applied a $15 collections fee to his account. He has paid back $5 total, and acted as though he had done us a favor. The remaining $10 is still outstanding after 6 months,

I hadn't seen the codger all summer, not since my last post about his antics. I hadn't even thought about him much until yesterday, when a co-worker's comment inspired me to make a pun about his name. Lo and behold, he hobbled through our door again today and browsed the large print section and brought a western to the front desk.

He handed over his card like nothing had happened, and awaited his checkout. There was red text all over his page detailing his account restriction and remaining collections charges. Checkout options were blank. And yet, despite all that, there was also a very peculiar list of books on his account showing that they had just been borrowed from another branch earlier today.

I made some excuses and brought the situation to my manager's attention in the back office. She loaded up his account and confirmed the oddities I had seen. Someone ignored the bleeding pixels of warning and let this geezer borrow despite his clearly-noted bad behavior. While she called the other branch, I went back up front and made myself look busy clicking and typing. I was just stalling for time loading my e-mail account and weather report. Meanwhile, the manager made a quick call to that other branch and exchanged some words with the staff there.

She then took over the interaction with Shouty, who proclaimed his innocence in this deception and acted indignant when told we couldn't lend him any books today. He said the other library had been lending to him for several weeks now, so my boss advised him to return to that other branch. We suspect some sudden policy reminders have been issued there, and he might finally get it through his thick skull that he has been a jackass, but I very much doubt it.

We'll see whether this saga continues...