**Unreturned library book leads to woman’s arrest
**
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090124/D95TMVT00.html
It had to cost more than $13.95 for the police to go and arrest her. Either there’s not much to do in Independence, or they’re REALLY desperate for the fine money. Or else they really take library fines seriously out there.
I bet a hell of a lot of people suddenly showed up with their library fines the next morning, though.
That’s a local story for me and I can’t believe how ridiculous it is. Are you joking? Do these people have nothing else to do? It was a lost book for crying out loud. Report it to a credit agency if you can’t squeeze money out of her and be done with it.
The library police are real?!! :eek:
Dude. I’ll admit that I’ve been unconscionably lax in the past about returning library books, but the worst-case scenario is that they send the collections agency after you. The cops? For what?!
I once accidentally left a library book on the subway. All they did was deny me library services until I paid to replace it.
I guess the reason they could get away with this is that the library isn’t a credit agency or a utility. Those places, I believe, are prevented from enlisting law enforcement by certain laws. If you don’t pay your electric bill or credit card debt, they can’t arrest you. But keeping a library book apparently can be construed as theft.
But sending the police for an overdue book? Clearly there isn’t much to do in Independence, IA.
It reminds me of a fake documentary film I made about the main library at Berkeley, where the reporter stumbles upon a covert operation of operatives who all dress completely in black and raid professors’ offices to get overdue books (“GRAB”: General Recall of All Books). (No they aren’t real, runner pat. It was just a movie.)
I think there is more to the story. I have a hard time believing this one.
Hopefully they didn’t do to her what the library policeman did to that kid. 
I’m thinking ‘Prostitution’ or ‘Crack Distrubution’.
Ok, not really.
I didn’t know there was such a thing as “fifth degree theft.”
Do they have “nth degree theft?”
Yeah, but it’s undefined.
You’re supposed to return those? Oh crap…
There is a way around this issue. Sully, the heroic USAir pilot, had a book from the Danville library with him on the plane. He actually sent them an email requesting an extension of the due date. They excused all fines and penalties, bought another copy, and put in a dedication sticker to him in front.
So, all she had to do was save 155 lives, and she would have been clear.
Just like the phone police, at least according to Dr. Johnny Fever.
I think it is cool that they did it.
A Sully is a true hero for being that straight arrow.
I got several other things I wish I could get the cops to arrest people for who think the rules are for other people… < veg >
I borrowed (and returned) an audio book-on-CD for a trip back in December, and was idly wondering why it was still showing up on my account as being out. Just this morning I was flipping through the CDs in my CD visor on the way to work and pulled out one I didn’t recognize to find it was disk 3 of 3! :eek:
In case anyone from the EPL is reading this, I’m coming by right after work! :eek::eek:
Unpaid library fines are a gateway crime. First a person starts by keeping a few library books at home, and before you know it they are out knocking over banks and selling their body for crack. We have to nip this sort of thing in the bud.
I guess I’m not getting the outrage here. The woman had borrowed a library book nine months ago and not returned it. The library tried to contact her about the overdue book. When that didn’t work, a police officer was sent to her house. She wasn’t arrested on that occasion so I assume she was just asked to return the book or pay for it. Four months pass by and she still hadn’t done anything.
Having her arrested may seem extreme but some people ignore anything less than extreme measures.
I don’t see any cost issue involved here. The police officer presumedly was not pulled off some other case to arrest Koontz. So he was on duty anyway.
She really was going to renew it, but had a problem.
Beaten to the punch by Little Nemo.
It’s not like some faceless bureaucracy or computer program automatically issued an arrest warrant when her book became due. They tried to contact her multiple times, including letters that she presumably received and ignored, and then sent an officer to her place to ask her to return the book. If you keep the book after all of that, what are they supposed to assume except that you’ve deliberately decided not to return it?
Also, as Little Nemo says, there was no additional cost involved to the police department. And even if there were, is that a precedent you want to set? If someone steals your purse, and it only has $20 in it, should the police be able to refuse to attend because taking the report will cost more than $20 in police time and resources?