LISNews: Librarian News

Ann Arbor (MI) District Library Director Josie Parker may have a pleasant Southern accent and good manners, but don't question her toughness.

On Sunday, Parker pursued a thief after he grabbed a collection box of money donated for the library's Family Book Club. In the process, she fractured a tibia and the thief got away - but not with any money. Go Josie!

The incident took place Sunday about 9:35 p.m. at the Borders store in the Arborland shopping area in east Ann Arbor. Parker was volunteering with a gift-wrapping program that benefits the book club. While Parker was wrapping gifts, a man in his 20s approached and stole the donation box, and Parker instinctively went after him.

"He tripped in front of her and she shoved him to keep from falling into him, and twisted her knee trying to recover,'' said Prue Rosenthal, a library board member.

"He went flat down, crushing the box containing the money and then he scrambled up and ran away,'' Rosenthal said in an e-mail account of the incident. MLive story.