Woman Hits the Jackpot at the Library

Posted on April 27, 2005

Reading can be profitable. The Associated Press reports on a woman who opened a library book, only to find a large wad of cash inside.

The former employee at Armstrong Library pulled a mystery novel off a shelf and noticed a bulge in its dust jacket. She opened the book and discovered what library officials termed was a "substantial" sum of money.

"I felt something in there, and from my time working here, I just had to straighten it out and felt in there and pulled it out," Armstrong said. "I thought, 'Whoa, wait a minute.'"

Library officials declined to say how much money was discovered, or what the title of the book was, so they could locate the money's rightful owner. The book hasn't been checked out since March 2004, when the library switched its system of tracking books. Before then, the book had been checked out 45 times, but the library's record-keeping system doesn't track previous checkouts.

The library won't say how much money was inside the mysterious book, only that it was "substantial." The library also says that the money should go to them, if no one claims it. Who in their right mind marks their place in a book with a "substantial wad of cash"? A bank robber who loves to read? Someone who just got back from visiting the ATM and couldn't wait to dive into the latest Grisham novel?

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