LUBBOCK, Texas — Josey’s Bookstore at 82nd Street and Slide in Lubbock had dumpsters full of books behind its store on Wednesday.

Social media posts circulating online speculated whether the books had been thrown away and were free for the community to take.

“They’re perfectly good books, we could’ve gave them away,” said Tanner Morris who was among the crowd collecting books. “There’s a bunch of teachers and kids they want to take them back to their schools.”

After a large crowd gathered behind the bookstore in the afternoon to collect the books, the Lubbock Police Department was called to the scene. The crowds of people were asked to leave and were allowed to come back after 7:00 p.m. when Josey’s closed for the day.

“There are safety hazards with climbing in dumpsters,” said Josey’s store manager JB Garrett. “Not only are there safety hazards, it’s a violation of city ordinance to dumpster dive.”

Josey’s had been trying to get rid of the books for the past year by heavily discounting them.

“We have made an effort, reached out to libraries, education centers, Goodwill,” said Garrett. “We have just not received the response that we hoped to receive from every resource that we have reached out to.”

The Lubbock bookstore has been in the process of liquidating for the last year and plans to open a store in Dallas.

“We have to empty the store out and get back to Dallas. We are having to throw away a lot of books that we don’t necessarily want to throw away,” said Garrett. “I just can’t carry all of these books back to Dallas with me so we have to throw them away.”

Josey’s plans to shut down its doors in Lubbock for good by November 19, according to a Josey’s employee.