This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Remember that episode of "Seinfeld" where Jerry gets busted by the library cop for never returning "Tropic of Cancer?" Well that's actually happening in a small town in Texas.
Earlier this week in Copperas Cove, a young man was booked into jail. His crime: not returning a GED study guide that he checked out in 2010, according to KWTX.
Opposing Views reports that the man was picked up during a routine traffic stop "after police noticed a warrant for an overdue library book."
Unsurprisingly, the residents of this small central Texas town are chaffing under the rule of their iron-fisted, bibliocratic overlords. Municipal Judge Bill Price — an orange bowtie-wearing autocrat if ever there was one — said that while the law allowing arrests for overdue books was created because materials weren't being returned, the reaction has been negative.
"Universal hatred, nobody wants to get arrested over a library book. The other side of that is people that go to our library and can't have these materials, they're put out, too," Price said.
But perhaps a revolution is brewing? The man who was arrested this week later bailed out and returned the GED book, along with his library card sneakily tucked inside. It only takes one…
— Jim Dalrymple II