Friday, December 3, 2010

Alabama Woman Creates Secret Branch Library in Her Bedroom


Link to December 2 Anniston (Alabama) Star article, "Woman stole $5,000 worth of books from library".

Excerpt: Anniston police arrested a local woman Wednesday on a felony theft charge of stealing more than 200 books worth about $5,000 from the Public Library of Anniston and Calhoun County.

Police originally arrested Regina Smith, 42, on a misdemeanor theft of property charge Nov. 25 after they found four library books illegally in her possession, Investigator Kyle Price said.

Price — the lead investigator on the case — said library officials reported in October that employees had observed a woman stealing two books from library shelves.

After a couple weeks of investigating the case, Price discovered Smith’s identity and went to her Eulaton Road home to interview her about the missing books.

During the course of that interview, Smith handed over four books she said she took from the library. But those books weren’t the ones officials said were missing. With some help from Smith’s daughter, Price eventually discovered that over the past couple of years, Smith had stolen 222 books totaling $5,431.

“We found her bedroom full of them,” Price said.

The library’s acting director, Teresa Kiser, said she and her staff knew many copies of books had systematically gone missing from library shelves.

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