Fired Lake County library supervisor says he created fake account to save books

LAKE COUNTY, Fla. — The branch supervisor of a Lake County library was fired from his job, and an investigation uncovered that he knew a library employee had created a fake account to check out books, Channel 9 learned.

Investigators said it was all part of a plan to keep the library's collection intact.

The point of the fake account was to keep some books from being thrown out.

"This is not about keeping books in the library, this is about falsification of public records," said Lake County Public Resources director Jeff Cole.

Library branch supervisor George Dore was fired and two others at the East Lake County Library were reprimanded after an investigation found that one patron named Chuck Finley had "checked out and checked back in thousands of books over a six to seven month period."

In some cases, the books were only checked out for less than a minute.

Officials said that raised some red flags, so they conducted an audit and made the discovery.

"One of the employees had created a fake patron, complete with a driver's license number, an email address, a street address; it was all falsified information," said Cole.

Officials said the name Chuck Finely was inspired by a Major League Baseball player, who had never visited the library.

A list released to Chanel 9 read that Finley checked out about 2,000 books.

According to investigators, the library gets rid of books that hadn't been checked out in more than a year.

Dore said he did it in order to save the books, but county officials don’t agree with his actions.

"There were opportunities to discuss any books to be retained in the library with his superiors," said Cole.

While some people Channel 9 spoke with said they appreciate the effort, but do not think Dore handled it properly, others believe he did the right thing.

"I think he's doing good keeping the books," said resident Pat Henderson.

Some of the books that Dore was trying to save were "How to Make Your Doll's House Special," "The Duct Tape Book" and "Pugs for Dummies."

Cox Media Group