South Carolina Woman Jailed After Failing To Return Movie Rented Nine Years Ago

An anonymous reader writes "Could you imagine being arrested for failing to return a movie you rented 9-years earlier? Well that's just what happened to one South Carolina woman. 'According to a Feb 13 arrest report, 27-year-old Kayla Finley rented Monster-in-Law in 2005 from now defunct video store Dalton video. The woman failed to return the video within the 72 hour rental limit, eventually leading up to her arrest 9 years later.'"

Comments

I was once filed an order to pay for a tape once

[GoodNewsJimDotCom]

I returned a tape, that old bowling movie KingPins to a local place through the drop box. But they mailed me ordering me to pay for it. Needless to say I didn't pay it. Imagine if someone got you arrested for failure to do inventory on their part.

Also makes me wonder about those people who check out a library book and don't return it for like 50 years. What kind of late fees would they be looking at :P

Re: Debtors Prison?

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

I sort of thought they get rid of most debt based arrests.

In theory, the US abolished debtors' prisons in the early 1830s(details vary by state, as usual).

In in practice, well, you can always spin a new set of legalisms to achieve the same effect, can you not?

Re:Statute of limitations

[Nexus7]

It is a feature of stories based on a dystopian future, and bykn some accounts (Shock Doctrine, I think?) of the present-day US, that the "common folk', you know, the ones with only 1 vote, are subject to increasing harsh punishments to stifle any hint of dissent, let alone revolution. Arresting for not returning DVDs is just a macabre progression from arresting for pot possession.

I'm sure in South Carolina, this will be only an human-interest story, not a cause of alarm or anything more.

Corporations get off with no punishment for far worse than illegally foreclosing homes! However your example is apt, since mortgages can be viewed as renting money (not technically however).

We had a rich man's son get off with no jail time for driving into 4 pedestrians, the judge said he suffered from "affluenza"! Other shocking examples are plenty in the US.

Re:Economically Inefficient

[laird]

Normally that's what happens in the US as well. Every place I've ever signed up for video rentals required me to give them a credit card and authorize them to charge me replacement costs plus a penalty specified in the contract. So typically she'd have been charged for the tape a few months after failing to return it. The idea of going to jail for losing a videotape rental is insane. I can't believe the video rental store would waste the money filing the charges over a single tape. Perhaps that sort of decision-making helped put them under?