Our Patrons Are Amazing

Hey there, Friends.

I don't know about you, but I could really do with hearing a happy story. Every time you turn on the news it seems to be filled with problems, things spiraling into chaos. It's like giving yourself an extra layer of stress and anxiety.

I'm going to share a happy story that happened at work today. Maybe it will restore your faith in humanity a bit, or at least make you smile. It sure did for me.

So, this afternoon a patron found a phone that someone had left in the men's bathroom. He showed it to one of my coworkers, and she showed it to me. Based on the photo on the lock screen we were able to identify it as belonging to our mailman.

Great! Now what do we do? The poor guy is going to notice his phone is missing at some point. I have no idea how long his route is, or what other stops he may have made. The phone is locked, so we can't get to the contacts and we don't want to violate his privacy. But I also don't want him worrying that it's gone forever, or trying to re-trace his whole day looking for it when we have it and it's safe.

So I look up the phone number for our local post office. I know, I know this is probably one of the worst times to try calling them. They have been getting slammed the last few days with people trying to mail last minute presents and cards. What else is there to do? The library was going to be closing at 5 pm, and so was the post office if the website was accurate. It was around 3 pm when the phone was found.

I tried calling several times. A coworker tried calling. The phone is just ringing and ringing. We can't get any answer, probably because they are so busy helping their customers who are waiting in line.

We had our own patrons to help as well. A lady that I was checking out had overheard that I was trying to call the post office, and she told me it was very unlikely that they were going to answer. She asked which post office it was and said it had looked very busy when she had driven by. We finished her transaction, and she left.

About  30 or 45 minutes later she calls on the phone. She had to go to the post office anyway, so after overhearing our dilemma she changed her plans and went back to our local post office. She told them that we were trying to call to get in touch with our mailman to return his phone.

The person she spoke to at the post office tells her that the mail carriers are based at a different facility. They give her the phone number to call the supervisor there. Our patron took it upon herself to call the supervisor and tell them that our library had our mailman's phone, and that we were holding it for him. I'm sure it couldn't have been a short conversation. They said they would get a message to him. She was calling us back to let us know.

I was amazed! I couldn't believe that she had overheard bits of the story, rearranged her plans, and gone out of her way to help us out. I thanked her profusely for going out of her way to try to help us and someone she didn't even know.

And it worked!!!

About half an hour before closing our mailman came in to claim his phone. He seemed pretty happy to get it back.

Maybe it was the holiday spirit infusing itself into the air. A Christmas miracle of sorts.

I like to think we just have some pretty great people who live in this area. From the man who did the right thing by turning the phone in, to the lady who went out of her way to help the library and a complete stranger, to the post office staff who took a pause in their busy schedule to help one of their own coworkers. It's so nice to see something work out with a good resolution, even if it is something so small in the grand scheme of things.

It certainly gave me a case of the warm fuzzies. It was a great way to end the work day. I hope sharing this story has maybe made your day a little better too.