A North Carolina man says he was arrested for failing to return a VHS tape that he rented in 2002.
James Meyers says he was driving his daughter to school Tuesday when a police officer pulled him over for a defective tail light.
He says the officer told him there was a warrant out for his arrest from 2002, because Meyers had rented the movie “Freddy Got Fingered” starring Tom Green and never returned it.
Meyers says the officer let him take his daughter to school and go to work, as long as he promised to turn himself in to the police department later that day.
Meyers showed media outlets the arrest warrant on Wednesday. He was booked on a charge of failure to return rental property.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
This must be a small town/city, and this store owner must have a grudge against this man. Mayberry RFD in real life. I grew up on a farm and near small towns like this. Good old days.
Bull1 You know what the difference between a “private use” (that you buy at Walmart and watch at home) and “public use” (that libraries, theaters, and schools have to buy)? About $80 (per tape)! And coming from a “small town/city” I can tell you there are lots of people who borrow library stuff and are so disorganized they somehow don’t get around to bringing them back–or lose them completely. We’re talking THOUSANDS of dollars in lost materials. Our town went from about 60 hours a week to 56 about fifteen years ago due to reduced budget, and a book I was waiting to read was “lost and paid for.” Great way to get yourself a book that’s selling over face value: check it out from the library and “lose” it. It’s so bad in my town, you’re more than 30 days overdue (yes, they call and warn them–repeatedly), they hand it off to the police. And it’s the LIBERALS that are whining “it was ONLY a month overdue, what’s the big deal?” If you don’t start getting after people somewhere, how are you going to stop it?
Justice delayed is justice denied. That flick was pornography. It should have been thrown away. The store should be fined for peddling that trash.
LIBERAL IGNORANCE strikes again.
Wanna bet it’s the LIBERALS that are whining about it “only” being a book/tape? It’s LIBERALS that don’t respect others’ properties.
If that is their biggest issue then they are doing good.
Why are so many commentors thinking the guy should get away with it? Failing to return borrowed material is the same as stealing, and it’s worse with libraries because you’re not just denying it’s use to one person. Too many people in today’s disposable/obsolete-in-a-month society just don’t care about respecting property or things that measure their lives in decades. Right now, I’m typing outside my local library because it’s just closed for Good Friday (it used to reopen after 3:00, but they haven’t done that the last few years. Budgets), and I don’t have internet at home. I’m also kicking myself for not “getting greedy” and checking out the entire series of books that I wanted to read, because while I had #1-4 checked out, #5 was checked out–and lost (what’s worse, books #5-6 are two parts of the same story). And it was the only copy in the 49-library system.
Our local library loses hundreds, if not thousands of dollars every year on unreturned books. Every borrower has contact information–the library will call, text, or email when books are overdue, depending on preferences. They try to contact them multiple times. Even if it’s overdue, a borrower can often renew it online from anywhere (unless there’s a hold on it or it’s reached its renewal limit). And people STILL don’t do anything about it. So after 30 days of trying, the library hands it over to the police, and the people say, “what’s the big deal? It’s only a book!?/I didn’t know.’ Depending on what’s been checked out, that’s a can be $30 in the first month–which puts it at the same level of traffic offenses, and I can tell you about guys having arrest warrants issued for “unregistered” registered bicycles.
This isn’t a library. It’s a private business that more than likely made hundreds off this rental. The guy made a mistake so is it worth messing up his life from something 14 yes. Ago? This arrest goes on his record. He will have to hire an attorney to get this expunged. A tape that is worth 5$ will cost this man 1000.Sounds like some good ole boy mentality going on here. The town apparently needs this mans money to shore up its coffers. This is ridiculous to say the least.
Why is Vengeance a righteous function of Justice? The Bible says “Vengeance is mine sayeth the Lord”. WW I was launched because the Crown Prince of Austria and his Girlfriend were killed by a bomb thrown into his carriage. 700,000 were killed in a single battle. Whole Nations were crippled and stripped of their finest young men by that war. Was it worth it? Nations should not presume to have a prerogative of God. They are not good at it. The consequences are terrible
If someone borrowed your car and didn’t bring it back what you do, Call the person that borrowed it ask them to bing it back, if they didn’t bring it back you call the police, Ah it’s just a book that is not the point of it ,
I know when I let someone borrow a tape/cd/dvd I expect it back in a reasonable time frame. Case closed!