Sep 30, 2007

Library Fined a Dead Woman



Rules are rules. This is what the librarian thought, when imposing fine on a dead woman? Ethel Schaper passed away at the age of 87 after a huge stroke. Before death she borrowed a book from a library in Westchester County, New York. When her daughter, Elizabeth Schaper went to retun the books, the librarian charged 50-cent as fine for late return!

"I told him that maybe he didn't hear me right, that my mother had just died, otherwise I'm sure that she would have returned it on time," she said.
"His only reply was: 'That will be 50 cents.'

Elizabeth Schaper had only found the book, The Price of Silence by Camilla Trinchieri, a few days after her mother's death. Connie Perrotta, a secretary for the director of the Harrison Public Library, confirmed that the incident occurred but said the library would have no comment. Link



2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I stood next to this woman at the library as this happened & it wasn't just the clerk demanding the 50 cents for the fine that was outrageous, but the clerk then demanded the daughter hand over "your mother's library card so we can revoke her library priveleges." The daughter looked truly stunned and shook up--had handed over the monetary fine immediately, and left the library in shocked silence afterwards. How cruel this clerk was to this woman who clearly was still in shock over her mother's death.

SimplR said...

Thanks for sharing your opinion. Some people don't have minimum respect to others. We think that, such people don't have right to live in our society.

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