CAPE TOWN – A nine-year-old boy’s love for books landed him in trouble on Thursday 20 August after he fell asleep in a library in Cape Town.

The boy was waiting for his father, who works at a nearby barbershop, to get off work when he fell asleep.

When the library closed at 16:00, staff locked the facility and left, unaware that the boy was still there. When he woke up at 18:45, the library in Parade Street was dark and deserted.

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Quick response

Jurie Bruwer, head of the Cape Town Central City Improvement District (CCID), says when the youngster eventually awoke, he panicked and started screaming for knocking on a window to alert passers-by.

“One of our public safety officers on duty near the library heard the commotion and notified the CCID’s 24-hour control room,” Bruwer related.

“Night manager Bennie Jacobs went to the library with two other CCID Safety and Security team members. One of them managed to contact a library staff member, who responded and came to open the library.”

Lure of library

The boy was reunited with his father soon thereafter, Bruwer says. “We accompanied the boy to the closed barbershop, where the worried father was waiting outside for his son,” she says.

It appears his father had instructed him not to go to the library after school as it closes at 16:00.

The boy was meant to go straight to his father’s place of work and wait for him to finish his shift. But the lure of the library, its plethora of interesting book and the quiet, secure space was far too enticing for the keen bookworm.