A “talented but ninja-like patron” is leaving painted rocks on the shelves of one public library in Surrey, mystifying employees there.
So far, staff at the Guildford branch have found close to 100 of the artful rocks, which began appearing at the library more than two years ago, in September 2019.
They’re typically found in the fiction “stacks” or on nearby shelves, roughly once a week. No notes of explanation or instruction are left behind, and the rocks keep coming.
“They’re all intricately painted, really well done, with a different theme each time and a number on the back,” said Meghan Savage, library branch manager. “Sometimes they’re thematic with the season, like a Halloween rock or a Christmas one.”
She said rock #100 was discovered on Monday (Feb. 7) – a sparkling blue one, with Saturn painted on the back. “I don’t know why, but Saturn was in the news recently, so maybe it’s something to do with that,” Savage explained.
Photos of the painted rocks are posted to Surrey Libraries’ Instagram account.
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“We have no idea who is leaving them on the shelves,” Savage insisted. “For awhile we thought it was maybe a staff member, and we were trying to tease it out of some of them, but no. And we have some suspects among our patrons but there are no conclusions there either.”
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For library staff, the weekly rock revelation has been fun and uplifting, she said, “because every time we find one, it’s exciting, and everyone’s kind of competing to find them. It’s interesting because we were closed for so long with COVID, from March of 2020 until September of that year, and we were wondering what happened to the person – will the rocks still be there? And five days after we reopened, there was a rock.”
In March, all of the found rocks will be placed in a display case at the library, for public viewing.
“We are missing two rocks – two were never found,” Savage noted. “So we’ll display all but two of them. It’s possible someone else found those two and took them home or something.”
tom.zillich@surreynowleader.com
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