On December 17, one day after the Mesa County Commissioners appointed two new conservative, right wing figures to the Mesa County Library Board, a older woman allegedly vandalized an arm load of library books on transgender topics, ripping pages out of them and dumping them in the trash. A security guard at the Mesa County Public Library in downtown Grand Junction reported the vandalism to the Grand Junction Police Department (GJPD) on Thursday, December 18.
Below is the text of the report on the incident made to the GJPD.:
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A vandalism was reported in the 400 block of N. 6th St. Grand Junction CO 81501.
20251218 JLWALSDORF, Narrative
December 18, 2025 2025-00079933 PST Walsdorf
The following incident occurred in the city of Grand Junction, county of Mesa, state of Colorado.
On December 18, 2025, I self-dispatched to a vandalism at 443 N. 6th St. Grand Junction, CO 81501. I called [NAME REDACTED] by phone, and he provided the following information. This is not verbatim but my recollection of events and statements during the phone
conversation. [NAME REDACTED] advised that he is employed by the Mesa County Public Library Security.
He advised that he wished to report damage to several books that were discovered in the library trash.
He advised that on December 17, 2025 approximately 13:30 hours a female that was recorded on video surveillance carried several
books into the female restroom. She later emerged and then was recorded on video surveillance disposing of the books into a library trash can. He advised that once employees recovered the books, employees found that pages were torn out and then discarded along with the rest of the books. He advised that the books on the public library shelves would not be placed on the shelves if they were previously returned damaged. He advised that the damaged books were all of a genre that discussed transgender topics.
He advised that the value of the damaged books to the Mesa County Public Library was $98.90. He advised that he was able to share images and video from the library.
[NAME REDACTED] later provided surveillance video and an image of the female suspect. I observed that the suspect appeared between the ages of 70 to 80 years old. She was clad in a red plaid shirt red vest and was carrying a red plaid jacket. She also had blue jeans and white hair.
I observed surveillance video that shows this person carrying several works of literature. She stops at a trash receptacle and is observed throwing away several books. He provided an image with the book titles that were found damaged. I reviewed the image. The book titles were, “When Harry Became Sally,” “Love and Resistance,” “Transgender Teen,” and “Beyond Trans Does Gender Matter?” I viewed that there appeared to be pages that were consistent in size and color that appeared to be from within the book titles provided. The pages did appear to have been ripped from the books.
I uploaded image and video from security surveillance into evidence under item number JL V-I. I then submitted the images of the damaged books and the suspect to records to be added to this report.
I submitted a request to patrol for assistance in identifying the suspect in this case. I also submitted a request to ask the citizens of Grand Junction for assistance in identifying the suspect.
I request this case to be closed/inactivated pending any additional witnesses or suspect identification.
CASE STATUS: Closed/Inactivated.
Documentation/References (pdfs):
Library book vandalism CaseReport
library book vandalism-summary
library book vandalism books destroyed
library book vandalism-supportingdocs