Common Courtesy

This post is meant for each one of you officers as much as it is me venting about patrons.

Get off your cellphone once in a while!

A girl just went through and she beeped. She was on her cell phone at the time and, instead of getting off and talking to me, she didn't say a word to me, carried on her conversation on the phone and pulled out two ILL books (I still say an IQ test should be required to check out those) and put them on the desk and kept on talking, barely even looking at me. I motioned for her to walk back through and she did, and all was well, but then she put the books back in her bag while she was finishing telling the person where to pick her up and then she left. Not one word was said to me. All I have to say is, I felt insulted!

People, I don't care if you're at the library, making a deposit at the bank, going through a supermarket check-out stand, or ordering at McDonald's. GET OFF YOUR PHONE WHEN YOU'RE INTERACTING WITH SOMEONE! At least give them the courtesy of acknowledging them as a human being and not treating them like they're some kind of automated machine, only there to serve you.

At the ATM, I don't mind if you're on your cell phone. Those things are rude.

Victory Wave of the Blue Blazer

"Control...we'll be making an arrest."

734 and 741 dash into the control room to do a little victory jig after hearing the latest on the under-24-hour backpack theft occurrence in CID. For those of you who were not visiting Harold during these hours, here's a little recap and shout out.

As I arrived yesterday for another exciting day of Westlandia and monotonous roves, I found out that a theft had occurred in our very own CID. I was asked to pull up the footage on the fairly-recently-opened-up view of CID from the hallway. I was excited to be part of the investigation, but my excitement was soon held in check when the inevitable Risk Management came requiring my irreplacable "ROVE" assistance. Luckily, I was only needed for about five minutes. By the time I came back, 729 had found a very informative section of the video that showed a man with a bag leaving and depositing it into the empty room also within view. He apparently had been in and out several times, playing the cellphone role as he did. We continued to look for more: the scene where the owner of the pack realizes his bag is missing and heads off frantically to look for it (when in reality it and the man who took it are probably not more than 7 feet away from where he left it); the scene where both owner and thief do what might be considered a Russian Roullette and probably even look each other in the eyes as they pass; the multiple scenes where the thief walks around on his cellphone; and finally the scene where the thief leaves with the backpack. Throughout the day more investigation went into the theft. Many employees believed they had seen him--perhaps even interacted with him. We didn't know then that the mystery would be solved only hours away.

Today, after accidently not checking that I had signed up for 708s shift, I arrived at work at about 7:45. Within minutes, I heard 740 explain to 12 that CID had called, they thought our man was back today, and the backpack had been returned to a cubicle 2 seats away from where it should have been. I was soon asked to search for the footage to confirm whether or not the suspect had a bag with him when he came in. Sure enough he did. Sure enough he was on his cell phone again. Sure enough he used the empty back room. The excitement butterflies were back.

12 had disappeared, we assumed to go talk with the man. After a while 734 and I looked at the footage of 12 heading back with another officer, and taking our man with him. We waited anxiously.

"Control, I just wanted to let you know, we'll be making an arrest so I won't be in the office for a while."

May the victory wave of the blue blazer be held high once more. Who says we just sit at the desks? Here's a shout out to all those who helped with another historical moment in Library Security. And 729...it just had to happen on your last day!

The Tap...

I just have to say I love the tap. You know...the tap that people do as they turn in their books right after they set the books down. I guess they just want to make sure you know they are there. The tap. "Just tap...tap...taparoo."

L'Afro goes HBLL (think "postal") in Disneyland

Friends, I had no idea how much Security had affected me until just last week.

I was in the Happiest Place on Earth (no, that's not the Atrium at sundown, you silly thing) walking around California Adventure with some friends. I'm a people-watcher, so I notice two people from India walk over to a huge wood statue of Brother Bear. They want to get a picture, so they get the third person in their group to take it.

They're standing there, seriously on the count of "two," when an American mommy-lady walks--not just through the photo--straight into the line of fire and just stands there, looking up at Brother Bear. The Indian people just look at each other for a minute, smiles frozen on their face, hoping she'll get the hint and leave.

She doesn't. Mommy-lady pulls a map out of her pocket and starts unfolding it. She's obviously looking for a landmark.

I waited about two nanoseconds before I jumped to action, doing the first thing I could think of.

I called out, "Ma'am?" in my very best you've-got-a-Jamba-and-you-set-off-the-3M-with-an-ILL-book tone of voice.

She didn't notice, so I called out to her again.

"Ma'am?"--finally she looked around and saw me--I said, and motioned to her to step toward me. "You're in their photo."

Well, Mommy-lady jumped out of the way with all sorts of apologies.

Me, I walked away feeling like a bit of an idiot. Looks like no matter how hard I try to leave the HBLL, it'll follow me there...

Any other stories? Official radio talk on a family camp out? Unintentional Jamba seizings in the Quad?