A five-year old girl who answered her door found a Charlton, Massachusetts police officer tasked with retrieving overdue library books. The girl, Hailey Benoit, cried, said she “was scared” and thought she was going to be arrested.
“The Benoit’s insist they never got any warnings,” reports Boston’s local CBS News station.
Apparently, in the small town of Charlton, population 12,981, overdue library books are considered a misdemeanor. The town librarian claims to have had about $4000 worth of overdue books outstanding.
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Via Wikipedia:
The Charlton Free Public Library was established in 1882. In fiscal year 2008, the town of Charlton spent 1.73% ($306,971) of its budget on its public library—some $24 per person. The library gained national recognition in 1906 after it banned Mark Twain‘s short story “Eve’s Diary” for its illustrations of Eve in “summer costume.” Twain testified before Congress after the incident saying, “The whole episode has rather amused me. I have no feeling of vindictiveness over the stand of the librarians there — I am only amused. You see they did not object to my book; they objected to Lester Ralph’s pictures. I wrote the book; I did not make the pictures. I admire the pictures, and I heartily approve them, but I did not make them. It seems curious to me — some of the incidents in this case. It appears that the pictures in Eve’s Diary were first discovered by a lady librarian. When she made the dreadful find, being very careful, she jumped at no hasty conclusions — not she — she examined the horrid things in detail. It took her some time to examine them all, but she did her hateful duty! I don’t blame her for this careful examination; the time she spent was, I am sure, enjoyable, for I found considerable fascination in them myself. Then she took the book to another librarian, a male this time, and he, also, took a long time to examine the unclothed ladies. He must have found something of the same sort of fascination in them that I found.”
 Hat tip: Rod McCullom