Cash-Crazed Crowd Trashes Library Shelves

The Ft. Worth Central Library was in shambles Wednesday after more than 500 people responded to a radio station’s publicity stunt by rushing through the aisles, climbing shelves and throwing books to the floor in search of money.

A disc jockey had announced Tuesday evening that Dallas-based country radio station KYNG-FM used $5 and $10 bills as bookmarks in the fiction section.

The library staff and a host of volunteers were busy Wednesday sorting through more than 3,000 books that frenzied listeners tossed on the floor.

“People started climbing the bookshelves; they started climbing on each other, and books became airborne,” library spokeswoman Marsha Anderson said. Some of the books ended up with ripped pages and broken spines.

It is unclear how much money was actually put in the books. The station claims it was only about $100, but the library staff did not know anything about it.

They were caught by surprise when hundreds of people began pouring through the doors, saying they had heard $10,000 was hidden in the books.

A KYNG spokesman said the disc jockey only wanted to boost public interest in the library by giving away about $100, and had no idea why listeners assumed that as much as $10,000 was at stake.

After several unsuccessful attempts to reach the radio station, library workers tried to restore calm by falsely announcing that the money had been found and the contest was over.