MILLBROOK FALLS — Local resident Dale Pruitt, 58, walked into the Millbrook Falls Public Library on Tuesday to return a water-stained paperback thriller checked out in 1993, and walked out roughly forty minutes later as the legal owner of a one-story municipal building, a bookmobile, and what he described as “a lot of large-print westerns.”

Pruitt said he found the book, Midnight at the Docks, while cleaning out his garage. He had reportedly intended to simply drop it in the return slot, but chose to bring it inside “to be polite.”

“I figured maybe a few bucks,” Pruitt said. “I even brought cash.”

Head librarian Marjorie Tolliver-Banks scanned the barcode, paused, and turned her monitor toward him. The system showed a balance of $4,213,880.15, reflecting 31 years of daily fines compounded under a 1994 ordinance that, according to Tolliver-Banks, “nobody ever voted to repeal because nobody ever thought to look at it.”

The library’s total appraised value, including land, stacks, and a partially functional microfiche reader, stands at $4,198,000.

“He was over by about fifteen thousand dollars,” Tolliver-Banks said. “Technically we owe him change.”

She then opened a desk drawer, produced the deed to the building, and asked Pruitt whether he had “a few minutes to sign some paperwork.”

Pruitt said he initially assumed it was a joke. “Then she handed me a pen with a little chain on it, and I realized it was the library’s pen, which I now also owned.”

Dr. Lyle Okonkwo-Hartsfield, a senior fellow in Late-Stage Circulation Economics at the Institute for Compound Interest in Public Institutions, said the situation, while rare, is mathematically sound. “Most patrons assume fines cap out at the replacement cost of the book,” he said. “That is a myth perpetuated by people who have never met a municipal code from 1994.”

“He was over by about fifteen thousand dollars. Technically we owe him change.”

Okonkwo-Hartsfield added that the only comparable case on record involved a woman in Ohio who returned a cookbook and inadvertently acquired a water treatment plant.

Under the terms of the transfer, Pruitt now holds title to the building, its contents, and the story-time carpet, which he said “has seen some things.” He has also inherited the library’s obligations, including a leaking roof, a standing Thursday knitting circle, and a patron who has reportedly been asleep in the periodicals section since Monday.

The town council issued a brief statement saying it was “reviewing options” and “deeply grateful for Mr. Pruitt’s continued patronage.” A council member, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the town had already begun looking into whether the library could be leased back at a reasonable rate.

Pruitt said he plans to keep the library open and has already made one executive decision: a 30-day lending period, no renewals.

“And the fines,” he said, standing behind the circulation desk in a borrowed cardigan, “are going to be very, very reasonable. Ten cents a day. I’ve seen what happens.”

At press time, Pruitt had discovered that Midnight at the Docks was the second book in a trilogy and was reportedly checking whether the library owned the third.