FIRST OFF . . .

Jerry Gustav Hasford, whose book “The Short-Timers” became the movie “Full Metal Jacket,” is being sought by California Polytechnic State University authorities, who late last week discovered some 10,000 books from libraries around the world in a storage locker in San Luis Obispo rented to the author. Campus police said they staged the raid to locate 87 overdue library books checked out to Hasford that carried $3,000 in fines. However, in the locker they also found books from libraries in England and Australia, including leather-bound works on Edgar Allan Poe and the American Civil War that were printed in the 1800s. Hasford, who shares a 1988 Academy Award nomination for best screenplay adaptation with “Full Metal Jacket” director Stanley Kubrick and Michael Herr, in recent years has lived in Morro Bay. While he doesn’t attend Cal Poly, he obtained a university library card under a procedure open to state residents, although authorities say the address and Social Security number listed on the card were false. No arrest warrant has been sought because investigators must first inventory the books, contained in 396 cardboard boxes that comprise a pile 27 feet long, 5 feet wide and 5 feet tall. Although nominated for a screenwriting award, Hasford didn’t appear Friday night at the Writers Guild of America Awards ceremony (he didn’t win). Efforts to reach him by telephone Saturday and Sunday were unsuccessful.