bunrab | interesting news excerpt (Reply)

From the Baltimore Sun, Wednesday Feb 8:

Library Patron 'borrows' way into prison

Record of 402 overdue items leads to Randallstown man's theft conviction, 3-year term

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 6 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 ALA. 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."

"Usually it's someone who's taking rare books, where they have some marketability and hope for huge profits," said Burger.
[skipping a few paragraphs here]
According to charging documents, Shabazz went to libraries between March 2004 and October 2004 and took out hundreds of books using different names on library cards. Library officials said that he went to the Randallstown, Catonsville, Pikesville, Towson, and Woodlawn branches.

The books checked out by Shabazz included nine copies of Bad Girlz and seven copies of Gangsta, along with titles such as Heat Seekers, Drama Queen, and Serpent in my Corner, court documents show.
...
Darcy Cahill, library manager for the Randallstown branch, said staff asked him once why he needed so man y books, and that he told them it was for his daughter's book club.

"It seemed like the book club was reading a new book every day," Cahill said.

Wheeler said library officials notified police after Shabazz attempted to use a card registered to a woman at the Pikesville branch. ... In October, officials sent a letter to Shabazz at a Randallstown address.

"Effective immediately, you are banned from all Baltimore County Public Libraries until you have returned all materials you have borrowed and paid all fees associated with the overdues or lost materials," the letter states. It warned that police would be called if he entered a library before he paid the money due.

Shabazz, whose record, according to court documents, includes a conviction for selling an undercover detective a bootleg video of "Star Wars Episode 1 - The Phanton Menace" was sentenced to three years in prison ...