South Carolina woman arrested for failing to return DVD rented in 2005

She spent a night in jail for not taking care of her business, which she knew about, nine years ago - not for failing to return a video. And the same thing can and does happen in the state immediately to the north of hers.

 

She went to jail for ignoring court orders.

 

About 20 years ago, I had to quit patronizing one particular chain that consistently sent me late notices for videos already returned. I'd typically rent three or four movies for a weekend and return them together. The last time I went in to deal with one of these issues, I'd rented most of a series (James Bond, Star Trek, something like that). I asked the manager why I bothered to return everything else I rented on the same day, then walked him back to the particular shelf where all those titles were kept. The "missing" tape was right there with the rest I'd returned.

 

Can you cite an example?

 

I can tell you from personal experience working in one of the state's busiest courthouses that it happens a lot.

Durham makes its inmate and charge lists public. Check their database (http://dconc.gov/index.aspx?page=749) for the last 30 days and you'll see multiple people brought in to the jail on charges of Failure to Return Rental Property. If you search for FTA, which stands for "failure to appear" and is essentially what harmed this woman, you'll see a ton more, including on similarly petty charges. For example, there's a guy who got a $1,000 bond on a 2008 charge of failing to get his dog vaccinated that he apparently never came to court to deal with. Another guy got popped on an 1996 charge of having an open container in the passenger area of a car, which he didn't take care of.

When you don't show up for court, there are consequences even if the underlying offense is seemingly minor.

 

Here's a novel thought, fine her, garnish her wages.

The rules are rules crowd are probably the same people who bitch about government spending and government waste.

 

What franticscribe said. Some people apparently need some basic Rule of Law education.

 

My state used to prosecute (I think still does) these Rent A Center type deals where people would stop paying and not return the stuff. The not paying was civil, but not returning the property was criminal. Prosecutors hated those cases and got rid of them all the time.

And while this woman is not exactly a bastion of sympathy, count me among those who think police ought to be able to serve a criminal summons. If the criminal summons goes unanswered, try her in abstentia. Find her guilty (if the other side even shows up, which they probably wouldn't) and sentence her to the cost of the video x 2 plus 5 hours community service and court costs and send her a show cause date. The problem with a lot of these petty things is, even for those who follow the rules and go to court, the process itself is more punishment than the crime is even worth.

 

One last point: not getting to see a judge until morning on a case this small is silly. A lot of jurisdictions have a 24 hour judge who looks at cases as they come through and goes ahead and releases people on recognizance with a court date without them even appearing before a judge. Been some problems in my area recently with people having to sit too long without seeing a judge, which I am sympathetic toward.

 

Agreed. Obviously she was in the wrong for not returning the video. But spending the night in jail was excessive. Not exactly a case where the punishment fits the crime.