Kansas Town Cracks Down
on Overdue Borrower
A Wichita woman who was arrested June 22 for failing to appear in court to return a book due back to the Haysville (Kans.) Community Library in December 1997 was fined $10 in municipal court July 6. According to the July 8 Wichita Eagle, Cheryl Cooper was also ordered to pay $27 in court costs and $5.80 in book fines.
She pleaded no contest to charges that she failed to respond to a summons. Unlike Wichita, which reports delinquent borrowers to a collection agency, Haysville turns overdue notices over to the police. Library Director Betty Cattrell told reporters that a court summons can be persuasive in retrieving books. “I can understand if you see it as too aggressive,” she said. “But the shelves would empty awful fast if we didn’t have any way to recoup them.”
Cooper, who posted $100 in bail, said the book “wasn’t worth $100, but it was a good book.”
Posted July 12, 1999.
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