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http://www.press-citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/200909301118/NEWS01/90930003

A woman’s past caught up with her Tuesday when she was arrested for thefts she allegedly committed more than a decade ago.

According to a charge filed in Sept. 1998, Elisabeth M. Weiss of Iowa City rented three video tapes on May 23, 1998. The 30-year-old woman rented the tapes from the long-closed Hagens Video, police said. According to police, the video tapes were due the next day, but Weiss never returned them.
As of Sept. 3, 1998 the video tapes were not returned and an Iowa City Police Detective contacted Weiss and asked her to return them. Weiss told the detective she would take back the video tapes, but never did so.
According to the criminal complaint, the total value of the movies and late fees is $231.97.
Iowa City Police Sgt. Troy Kelsay was unaware of what lead to Weiss’s arrest on the 11-year-old warrant. Kelsay said Weiss was picked up by an agency outside of the area.
Weiss was charged with fourth-degree theft. She was taken to the Johnson County Jail, posted a cash bond and was released an hour later.

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I don't know if my buddy paid off all his late fees at a local video rental place before moving to New York. Maybe I should warn him.

Here's one from my childhood.

My dad and a first cousin of his were always big on "friendly wagers" when playing competitive videogames. Back when NBA Jam was all the rage they spent a whole night, into the next morning, playing. Apparently at some point the cousin ran out of free cash to gamble with and put the game itself up for bet. My dad won, the game was a rental his cousin had brought over.

Months later the cousin got to spend a night or so in jail over the game, good times.





The same scenario happened again years later with Tekken 3.

Galatians 1:69

"Thou dost the crime, thou doeth the time."

GeneralOrder24 said:

Galatians 1:69

"Thou dost the crime, thou doeth the time."

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but do not forget Romans 23:92.5

"This shit is ridiculous"

Video rental companies (having worked in one as the IT person) operate on razor thin margins. When a customer doesn't pay their late fees, or doesn't return the videos they usually send a letter or two, then sell then debt to a debt collection company.

The debt is then treated like any other debt, and can affect your credit score, etc.

However, some stores make police reports of stolen property for rentals that are not returned. These are classified as stolen property in some areas (local law varies).

A warrant may be issued, but nothing may come if it immediately since it's such a low value crime. It will stand on record, though, and may prevent one from getting certain gov't services since some agencies do background checks.

A particularly bored investigator or new investigator may decide to do a little 'quick work' and check out these warrants to see if there's easy pickings to fill out their 'successful' case file (not unlike a portfolio for artists).

Lastly, even through the nineties a lot of documentation was kept on paper. As open cases get converted to computer, automatic checks and flags kick in, causing investigators to revisit cases that otherwise collect dust in the filing cabinet.

So... yeah. If you don't return rental items (be it a UHaul truck or a VHS tape) you may be charged with theft.

-Adam

We get ridiculous shit like that (in our case, it's cabbies) all the time. We always let them know it's a civil manner and not a criminal and shoe them out.