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Tiny little South End library stolen
By adamg on Tue, 08/11/2015 - 12:45pm
UPDATE: Library found, returned.
Lydia Walshin reports on the theft of the tiny free library on Milford Street in the South End:
Tonight someone stole the Little Free Library from in front of our house. South End friends, if you happen to see it tossed in the trash somewhere, please let me know. Our hearts are breaking.
Via Alyssa Stevens.
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Comments
SWEET ZOMBIE JESUS...
...people are the worst. STOP BREEDING FOLKS!
People suck..
People suck..
So odd
If they'd taken all the books, I'd almost understand that. But who takes the whole damn thing? What use is it? To say you've done it? To brag about how you took that little plywood house of books? Because someone said "I bet you can't steal that"?
It has no value...so what purpose was there to taking it?
Even destroying it in place would make more sense to me. Some people are just malicious cretins. But taking it is effort. Malicious cretins are all about the most damage for the least effort.
Stealing stupid value-less stuff for the sake of taking it
is a unique-to-Boston crime (at least, as far as I've noticed compared to other places I've lived.) My husband had several oil-stained and torn motorcycle covers stolen when we lived in Allston, of course.
Yeah, it's SO SUPER FUNNY to just take things that belong to other people and have no real resale or secondary use value.
Not just Boston
I hate to break it to you but there are shitheads everywhere who think it's hilarious to do something for the sole purpose of making someone else's day worst.
This is the city alternative to smashing mailboxes in the suburbs.
But that's the distinction
If they'd smashed it, like someone using a baseball bat on mailboxes while driving down the road, then I'd actually understand more.
They took it whole. That's not the same thing. That's a lot of effort just for mischief. It's not usually part of that ethos.
I'd like to say it was unique
I'd like to say it was unique to Boston, because I don't live there anymore. Sad to say, however, that it is not.
Pretty sure that happens everywhere
Just google "senseless theft'.
However, I think calling this particular object 'value-less' is inaccurate. It appears to be very nicely made, so it would have a lot of appeal either to possess or to sell (here's the google shopping results for 'little free library').
It's definitely a shitty (and criminal) thing for someone to have done, but how suprising is it really, that an unsecured $250+ piece of furniture was taken from the front steps of a city building? Probably hundreds of people passed by it before one jackass decided to take something that wasn't theirs.
(btw, I would suggest that the victims keep an eye out on craig's list and ebay for the next couple weeks).
C'mon
Do you get out much? Where else have you lived? This stupid stuff happens everywhere....bored, obnoxious teenagers, people angry at the world, their life, lashing out, vandalizing shit, stealing for the sake of stealing....the South End has the added distinction of having a lot of druggies and homeless (not necessarily one and the same), and transients up to no good. My bet is somebody did because they thought it would be funny or they were bored, high, etc.
To blame Boston is childish and silly.
Actually
New York and San Francisco.
And I've very rarely seen the HAHAHAHAHA it's SO FUNNY to wreck things pointlessly, except among teens in very priviliged suburbs.
No, actually...
Well, you haven't seen it in Boston either, unless you're thinking about examples that you're not providing us with here. The item in question was stolen, no trashed, and we have no information on whether the perpetrator(s) were laughing, crying, laughing on the outside/crying on the inside, or what.
not at all unique to boston
Sadly.
Yup, our little free library
Yup, our little free library in in our old neighborhood garden in DC (built by students working with an architect who volunteered their time) was constantly being destroyed by kids or drunks. On the plus side, that meant there was also a group of people always getting together to rebuild it.
It has no value...so what
Same type of people that steal road signs to hang on their wall, probably.
What a mean, pointless thing to do.
:-(
likely neither, but rather avaricious
As I pointed out above, that's a very expensive piece of furniture to leave unsecured at the sidewalk. I would lay odds that it was taken so it could be sold.
Sold?
Where--on Craigslist in the "lightly used tiny library section?"
Pretty sure this was a crime of sheer assholery, not someone looking to finance their habit.
Above, there are links to
Above, there are links to people selling these fixtures on Google.
Derp! Did you bother clicking on the links provided above?
Yes, there are many little free libraries, new and used, for sale on craig's list and ebay and google et al.
And the idea that the only people who steal stuff are drooling drug addicts is - apologies to Elmer - adorable!
This is why
we can't have nice things
Well i will have nice things
Well i will have nice things even if they get stolen (my american flag, my kayak (got it back), my wallet (got that back minus the money - this happened twice), my ceramic pig from my garden in dorchester - it was reddish happy pig lying on its back. Had a broken ear.
I figure it's payback for all the crappy things i stole, smashed and burned when I was an ignorant kid. So I will have nice things and not get too upset when these things happen. I do miss the pig in case the culprit wants to return it.
There is one of those adorable libraries in my neighborhood. Neat idea
Who says you can't get a free
Who says you can't get a free education...
Most likely a young resident of Villa Victoria or the Ruth Lillian Barkley apartments.
Can't wait for the day both are razed.
Wow.
Wow.
You a neighborhood resident?
Just curious, since you seem to know the neighborhood so well. You live down the street, do you?
Yes, for 5 years. I've lived
Yes, for 5 years. I've lived in the Back Bay and South End.
Street name
It's Milford St not Milton.
Stolen items from the South End
I built a fountain in my South End front yard and for years kept turtles in it. The young kids in the neighborhood all loved it and came by every day to see how the 'local wildlife' was doing.
People kept stealing the turtles. When Northeastern kids used to live next door sometimes the turtles would disappear for a weekend and then reappear. Once someone returned a turtle that had been gone for months into the (now drained) fountain in November where he would have frozen to death if I hadn't noticed her.
I finally got sick of it and thought all these turtles are better off in the wild. What kind of people make the effort to go into the front yard, get on their hands and knees and walk away with a turtle that everyone knows the kids in the neighborhood love?
I still get people stopping by with their kids going 'are the turtles coming back?' or 'the kids miss the turtles'. I tell them about the thefts and then say 'That's why you're moving to the suburbs right?' The professional affluents with kids look slightly taken aback that I mysteriously know their plans but so far every single one of them has said "yes, we are'. The last couple I asked responded: "moving next month".
Life is a constant balancing act, but don't be surprised that this happens in the South End. It is very sad, that was a great library!