Great story! I recently had a $6 late fee from Blockbuster Video and almost passed out, so I am happy Mr. Dau did not have to pay the $52K fine!
Lexington, VA (AHN) – A history book that was taken by a Union soldier from a Lexington, Virginia college’s library in 1864 was returned in February by the inheritor of the item.
The Leyburn Library of Washington and Lee University, formerly Washington College, did not charge fines for the first volume of W.F.P. Napier’s “History of the War in the Peninsula and in the South of France,” which was 145 years overdue.
Citing notes on the book, Laura Turner, technical services director of Leyburn Library, was quoted as saying by Thenews-gazette.com that C.S. Gates took the book on June 11, 1864 thinking it belonged to the Virginia Military Institute, which was just beside the then Washington College.
At that time, the Union troops were raiding the VMI library and later burned it down.
From Gates’ family, the book passed to Lake Forest couple, Myron and Isabel Gates. Mike Dau, the head handball and assistant football coach at Lake Forest College, inherited the book from the couple. The coach decided to return the book to its rightful owner when he and his wife visited relatives in the Washington area in February.
Dau asked the library to exempt him from fines worth $52,858 as the book was 52,858 days overdue.
(Source: http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7014801995)
Haha! Awesome story. Sounds like something that they’d make up at The History Bluff. Maybe I should start checking some stuff out of my library so my great-grandkids can return it for free.