Man Hit by Falling Book in Library
Posted: 2002-11-28 04:14pm
I was in the Toronto Reference Library today doing some reading when the funniest thing I've seen in a long time happened. I was on the 4th floor which is about 70-80' off the ground when I was distracted by a small group of cute giggly girls using the photocopier. The photocopier is right up against the safety barrier, which is about 4' high, and from there it's a real long drop to the ground floor. I was now watching 4 cute giggly girls about 20 years of age talking loudly, giggling, and using a photocopy machine, fun stuff for a guy like me.
Anyways, they had a bunch of books stacked up beside and on top of the photocopier, and in a classic blonde moment one of them nudged a book over the safety barrier and in a freak act of chance it plonked some poor guy in the head 4 stories below! The girls quickly went from giggly to hysterical, and it got worse when they noticed security looking up at them. They just stood there and freaked, even when they saw that the guard was making his way towards them. They didn't try to sort out their stories, act innocent, or run, they just stood there for over a minute freaking out and going "Oh my god I dropped a book! Oh my god security's coming! Oh my god what do we do!"
By this point I was completely losing it, I'd just seen a guy get plonked in the head by a falling book (he didn't get hurt much), and I was now watching 4 girls freak out and panic, and on top of that security was on its way to have a few words with them. When the guard came up to them the only phrase they could say was "Oh my god! It was an accident I didn't mean to do it I swear!", and they must have repeated that about 10 times before the security guard managed to calm them down enough to get anything else coherent out of them. I heard him taking down names and numbers, after which he escorted them to the main floor so they could apologize to the guy they dropped a book on.
I didn't get any work done after seeing this, it was just too funny and I couldn't stop myself from cracking up. I've also learned that hardhats may be required for certain areas of the library.
Anyways, they had a bunch of books stacked up beside and on top of the photocopier, and in a classic blonde moment one of them nudged a book over the safety barrier and in a freak act of chance it plonked some poor guy in the head 4 stories below! The girls quickly went from giggly to hysterical, and it got worse when they noticed security looking up at them. They just stood there and freaked, even when they saw that the guard was making his way towards them. They didn't try to sort out their stories, act innocent, or run, they just stood there for over a minute freaking out and going "Oh my god I dropped a book! Oh my god security's coming! Oh my god what do we do!"
By this point I was completely losing it, I'd just seen a guy get plonked in the head by a falling book (he didn't get hurt much), and I was now watching 4 girls freak out and panic, and on top of that security was on its way to have a few words with them. When the guard came up to them the only phrase they could say was "Oh my god! It was an accident I didn't mean to do it I swear!", and they must have repeated that about 10 times before the security guard managed to calm them down enough to get anything else coherent out of them. I heard him taking down names and numbers, after which he escorted them to the main floor so they could apologize to the guy they dropped a book on.
I didn't get any work done after seeing this, it was just too funny and I couldn't stop myself from cracking up. I've also learned that hardhats may be required for certain areas of the library.