The Haskell Free Library straddles the international border between the United States and Canada, with half of the building in Derby, Vermont, and half in Stanstead, Quebec. It's the only library in the world with such a distinction, which we detailed in 2017.
Visitors are allowed to enter the library from either country's entrance, but immigration officials for both the U.S. and Canada park outside their respective sides to make sure whomever enters the library in one country also exits the building in the same country.
Which brings us to this week, where a Polish woman, Julitta Jaka, was dropped off by a random car in Stanstead, walked through the library, and then tried to hail a taxi in Derby.
As Derby is a bustling town of 4,600 people, where cabs are more mirage than reality, this offered ample time for American authorities to arrest Jaka.
It turns out Jaka tried hustling across the border in Niagra Falls earlier in the week, but was simply turned away. After her library hijinks, authorities plan to deport Jaka back to Poland.
Lest you think this is an isolated incident, the Haskell Free Library is a hotbed for international fun. In 2018, a Montreal man was convicted of smuggling over 100 guns from the United States into Canada, where he used the library as his gateway.
Is Derby, VT, just baby Miami? Somewhere, Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas are just cracking down on criminal syndicates in the northern woods.
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