02.14.06
borrow your way into jail
Library patron ‘borrows’ way into prison
Record of 402 overdue items leads to Randallstown man’s theft conviction, 3-year term
– reported by Newsday.com
If you’re two weeks late in returning a book to the Baltimore County library, you’re likely to get a phone call. If your book is four weeks overdue, you’ll receive a notice in the mail.
And if you’re Philip Akbar Shabazz, you’re sent a letter that begins: “You currently have 402 items overdue from the Baltimore County Public Library. Fees and charges for these items amount to over $8,400.”
Library officials say they suspect that the books were sold. Yesterday, Shabazz, a Randallstown resident, went to court to face a felony theft charge. He was convicted and sentenced to three years behind bars.
Shabazz, according to library officials, went from branch to branch to check out hundreds of books. He used, they said, as many as 10 different library cards using different names. On one day alone, they said, he checked out more than 60 books - at least six times as many as the typical adult library patron.
“To my knowledge this is the first time we’ve taken somebody to court,” said Deborah Wheeler, assistant director for the county library. “We’ve never seen anything this large.”
Stealing library books, and even selling them, is not unheard of, said Leslie Burger, president-elect of the American Library Association. But she says, “It doesn’t happen all that much. … It’s not like there’s a widespread underground economy in taking books from libraries.”
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Still, library officials said that if Shabazz were to square his account, he would no longer be barred from library branches.
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My personal note: I think that the fact that library is willing to give him another chance, after he settles his account, is very indicative of the fact that libraries work with patrons to keep them coming back in.
Just my $.02.
