Ashburton’s Cass St Book Box is closed, after it has been cleaned out a few times by a thief.
A Book Box regular user, Keith Cox, recently witnessed one of the thefts under way.
The 80-year-old crime fiction fan used some sleuthing skills at the time, observing the actions of the thief and memorising his car’s registration number.
Keith said he was walking past the box, on a weekday, when he saw a stocky dark-haired pakeha man clearing out its contents. The man walked past him with an armload of books.
Keith reads about 50 books a year, which he buys or borrows from the library and the Book Box. His favourites include those by crime and thriller authors Lee Child and David Baldacci.
Keith agreed being a crime novel fan helped prime his mind to be more observant. That and having worked as a repossession agent in the past. He was a repo man in Tauranga for about 10 years, finishing the job about 15 years ago.
‘‘It does make you more aware of things around you,’’ he said.
So instead of just walking on past the man with an armload of books, he stopped in his tracks to observe the man walking down the road. The man went about 20m, to where a red ute was parked, and put the books in the car.
‘‘I wanted to see if he was going to come back with books, and he didn’t,’’ Cox said.
The Book Box operates on the principle that readers take just one or two books at a time, and then replace these with one or two books when they are able.
‘‘To me, I thought that was disgusting what he did,’’ Cox said.
‘‘The books are there for the community, not for one person to take it all,’’ he said.
‘‘Being a book reader myself, that was my thoughts, ‘Why would you take that many and deprive somebody else?’’’
As soon as Cox saw the man drive away with the books, he went into Community House to report the incident, and the car’s registration number. Community House operates the Book Box, which is located outside its premises.
Jess at Community House said the Book Box had been cleared out a few times by the suspected thief.
Subsequently, she closed the facility on July 19, and hoped to reopen it within four weeks. Book Box users were still able to take from and contribute to books on shelves inside Community House, which operates 8.30am to 5pm Monday to Friday.
The Book Box has a sign on it saying it is closed, with a message to the thief that his car registration is on file and the area is monitored by security cameras.
Neither Jess nor Keith had reported the incident to the police.
