SF Library Offers Amnesty to Tardy Book Borrowers

But each has to cough up an excuse
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 14, 2009 6:30 PM CDT
SF Library Offers Amnesty to Tardy Book Borrowers
A group of second-graders, responding to an amnesty program at the San Francisco Public Library, said they were too busy with marine mammals to return a book.   (Shutterstock)

A book amnesty program in San Francisco has inspired many guilty returns and a few entertaining excuses, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The city's public library offered tardy borrowers the chance to return items, fine-free, as long as they came with an excuse. Returning a record 29,228 items worth $55,165 in fines, book-lovers coughed up a few memorable explanations:

  • A class of second-graders said they were too busy saving marine mammals.
  • One man fell out with his sister, who "accidentally" put the movie Babe—which she had borrowed in his name—in his DVD stack.
  • One woman borrowed a book on Jewish love for help with her relationships, but after three affairs sputtered, she figured the book was no good.


(More library stories.)

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