Checks stolen from book sale returned

Maybe the thief just wanted to pay off a library fine.

A sealed envelope holding $178.85 in checks reported stolen from a Friends of the Valley Library used book sale nearly a month ago mysteriously showed up in the library’s outdoor book return on Friday.

“We’re just so thrilled, and feel hope, and feel that maybe things are not as bad as they looked,” library manager Ellen Miller said.

About $900 in cash and personal checks disappeared during a booming used book sale at the library April 23, said Mayo Sayrs, who helped organize the event.

“They worked so hard to do a fund-raiser,” Miller said of the group, which formed about 10 months ago.

“This was the first event they had done and this happened to them,” Miller said. “They were just devastated.”

Police had not developed any leads before the checks showed up, Miller said, and there is still no sign of the cash.

Still, Miller said the returned money means a great deal to the organization, which has earmarked the money not stolen at the book sale – about $570 – for the summer reading program and other library expenses.

Police on Friday afternoon were considering whether it would be worthwhile to take the checks as evidence, or if they should just go straight to the organization, she said.

Sayrs had worried about someone using the account numbers on the checks to run up fraudulent charges and notified the account holders of the theft after the sale.

“My first goal is to get the checks and to call each person and let them know their checks aren’t loose anymore,” Sayrs said. If they haven’t canceled them, Sayers expects that people will let the organization keep the money.

Librarians empty the book return box that juts from the east wall of the library every half hour. About 3 p.m. Friday, somebody deposited an envelope that looked like it contained library fines, Miller said. But when a worker saw that the checks were made out to the Friends of the Valley Library, they were turned over to Miller, who immediately donned rubber gloves to handle them and called the police.

Miller said crime is rare at the branches that make up the Spokane County Library District.

“It’s sort of a neutral zone, and there’s sort of a respect that comes with that,” she said.