Woman Facing Jail Time For Not Returning Two Library Books

While it might seem like ages since you last rented a book from the library, you'll likely never forget the stress of making sure you returned it on time.

The punishment was never that much but you didn't want to get on the bad side of a library before exam time.

Well, one woman in the US is staring down the possibility of spending time in jail, all because she didn't return two library books.

Melinda Sanders-Jones rented Where The Sidewalk Ends and Night for her kids two years ago.

CBS 17

But when she returned to the same library to do some printing, she was told that she wasn't able to get it done without returning the books. The mum of five discovered they were sitting in a bookshelf at her home and gave them back.

However, a week later, when she was going for a promotion at work, she discovered there was a warrant out for her arrest.

Her boss had to do a criminal check and he called Melinda to tell her the news.

"My boss called me on Tuesday to inform me that I had warrant and I had to pull over because I started laughing and he was like 'no, I'm serious'. And I was like, no, there's no way," Sanders-Jones told CBS 17.

"I really don't think that going to jail over those two books is okay, and I definitely didn't want to steal their property.

"I assumed that they had sent it to collections and that I would see it on the report or something like that. I had no idea that criminal charges would be pressed."

CBS 17

Melinda is now looking at a maximum penalty of 93 days behind bars and a $500 fine.

But she says this is a complete waste of everyone's time.

"It's just ridiculous," she said. "Like, there is no reason that this needs to be happening. Like I said, they would have had a better chance of getting their money if they would have sent it to collections...because I would have known."

The mum says that the reason why she probably didn't receive any notices about the missing books was because she kept changing residences to get out of an abusive relationship.

"Any mail that was there, I didn't get," she said. "Soon I ended in the Siren Shelter that's here in Charlotte that helps with domestic violence victims and your address is confidential. I had to change my phone number...I had to change my entire life."

Her next court date is November 7.

Topics: World News, News

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

@stewartperrie