Community Corner
'Little Free Library' Wasn't Robbed, Bloomington Police Admit
The police department's tweet about "thefts" from Little Free Libraries in the Minneapolis suburb caused an uproar on social media.
BLOOMINGTON, MN — The Bloomington Police Department faced criticism on social media after alerting the public to "thefts" that were occurring at the Little Free Libraries in the Minneapolis suburb.
"After some thefts from little libraries in our city, officers and staff came together to donate a bunch of books to the libraries," the department tweeted. "Now people can use and enjoy them again!"
The tweet garnered thousands of critical responses that pointed out a person cannot steal from a free library. Little Free Libraries, which are a part of the Little Free Library project, encourage neighborhood book exchanges.
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"An individual was taking every book from the libraries," the department later clarified. "It is common that they are then sold for a profit which is not the intent for the libraries."
Eventually, the department admitted in yet another tweet that a "theft" did not occur.
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Regrettably, in our previous post we used the word theft to describe books being taken from a free library. We did not investigate this as a theft nor take a report. We simply responded by donating books that our BPD staff brought from home. A human error. Have a safe weekend.
— Bloomington Police (@BPD_MN) July 2, 2021
The official Little Free Libary Twitter account also weighed in:
Hello, everyone. Our stance has always been that Little Free Libraries are free book exchanges where anyone may take books or leave books. The books are freely exchanged.
— Little Free Library® (@LtlFreeLibrary) July 3, 2021
"We encourage stewards to keep an open mind and remember that the purpose of a little library is to share books—and if people are taking books, that's a good thing!" the group added.
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