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Since 2002, Geoff Fox has written about the offbeat and dynamic personalities that make Pasco County unique. He is now revisiting them, meeting new characters and sharing more stories. Email

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Thug Robs The Book Shack A Week After Store’s Anniversary

Posted Oct 16, 2009 by Geoff Fox

Updated Oct 16, 2009 at 05:01 PM

It requires no bravery or mental agility to walk into a book store with a gun, level it at the proprietor and make off with practically nothing.

Such an act could get you a pretty stiff prison sentence if you get caught, though, especially if you’re a convicted felon.

Anyone who knows Jo Kassabaum, longtime owner of The Book Shack in Dade City, probably hopes the genius who robbed her Monday – with the barrel of a semi-automatic gun pointed at her head – is caught by police and eventually sent where most of us would like to see gun-wielding criminals.

The robbery occurred a week after Jo celebrated her 30th anniversary of owning the well-stocked book-lover’s paradise on Seventh Street. The Dade City Police Department has been trying to find the young man who robbed Jo, but nothing solid has turned up yet.

Jo said she was eating lunch when the man walked in. She asked him if he needed help with anything.

That’s when he demanded money from the register.

He had a bandana over his face.

He pointed the gun at her skull sideways, gangsta-style.

“He wasn’t belligerent. Just wanted what he wanted and left,” she said.

He made off with about $5 from her purse and “not much” from the register, she added.

“I mean, it was pretty early on Monday,” she said. “It was dead in here.”

It is that kind of idiot that inspired the Florida Legislature in 1999 to pass legislation providing for enhanced minimum mandatory prison terms for offenders who commit crimes with guns.

For example, there is a mandatory minimum 10-year prison term for some felonies in which the offender “possesses a firearm or destructive device,” according to the Florida Department of Corrections.

Happily, the incident has not persuaded Jo to seek an early retirement or significantly alter her business – aside from possibly installing mirrors so she can keep a better eye on the store.

She did, however, say that for the first time in 30 years, she is somewhat nervous about being at work.

“That gun was pointed at my head the entire time,” she said. “That was something else.”