"Henson says the $30 DVD was accidentally packed and taken when the family moved. After an overdue notice and bill were not returned, the city sent Henson two court summons, which he did not receive because they were mailed to the family's former address. After Henson failed to respond to the second summons, authorities issued an arrest warrant"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/09/colorado-library-orders-t_n_492414.html
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/22745694/detail.html
Well I hope Littleton is happy. Its pretty sad that they arrested a 19 year old, and then reimburse the family of the court costs and removed the arrest from the boy's record. They should of thought about that in the first place. I wonder if the family got reimbursed for everything. It didn't mention everything, only the court costs. I hope that town is humiliated, because I think that it ridiculous. Most policies I have heard of is that if you fail to pay the fines, you pay for the whole dvd or whatever you rented/checked out. No way I would let them arrest me if I was in that situation. Not that I would have a choice :P
I can't even begin to say just how silly this whole thing sounds to me. I understand their concern for their property, but in the long run is that really worth it? All the trouble they went through, what they did to this family, how can an establishment find that reasonable? First of all I don't understand how the library was allowed to take such actions against an individual. How do they have such authority? Secondly, they are being very judgemental. One can not say that many people have purposely stolen from them, but that doesn't give them the right to treat everyone like thieves. Honest mistakes happen and they should not be punished the same way intentional behaviors are. I really hope they can get this off his record. There are enough people in prison as it is, the last thing we need is more individuals being locked up because of a dvd not returned on time. Come on people.
As silly as it seems, and not to say that I APPROVE of the situation by any means...I can't help but wonder if this scenario is an accidental deterrence. I mean, it was intended that the 19 year old be made an example of clearly, I just have to wonder if this situation and the repercussions of it were an effective punishment on the society as a whole. We can be sure that the 19 year old wont have an issue with returning movies again because I would imagine this caused some very significant strain on him, but I wonder if people that come into contact with this post, or this news story, or hear about it will be effected by it in the long run.
This is ridiculous, to actually arrest someone for forgeting to return a DVD to the library. Not to say that I think it is right that he was arrested, but I can see the library's point of view. This young man may have accidently not returned the DVD but clearly if $7,000 worth of library property goes missing in a year, not all of it was an accident. I find it a more then a little sad that people would actually steal that much from a public library. They provide a public service, and that service is being abused. However I think it is fair to say that by arresting someone for a $30 DVD is wasting tax payer's money. And aren't the taxes that we pay supposed to go to public services? So by allowing policies such as this one aren't we in turn abusing public services?