Woman jailed for overdue library books

BAYTOWN, Texas (KPRC/NBC) - Overdue library books landed a Baytown woman behind bars on Thanksgiving Day, police said Tuesday.

Baytown police said Jessekah Few, 25, failed to appear in court on charges related to the unreturned library property. She was arrested on outstanding warrants.

"It's not a very common charge," said Detective Alan Cliburn with the Baytown Police Department .

Cliburn said several arrests have been made for similar outstanding warrants.

"It's part of the deal, part of the agreement that you enter into. It's just like anything else -- you can't take something that doesn't belong to you and just hold onto it," Cliburn said.

The library director said charges are only filed if someone has more than $200 of library property and repeatedly ignores requests to return it.

Cliburn said that is exactly what happened.

"The entire story of this is that the female was in the Harris County Jail prior to this warrant was actually issued to her, so she was aware of the warrant," he said.

Few is out of jail and said she doesn't have the books anymore.

She said a house fire destroyed them seven years ago and said she has already turned in paperwork from the Red Cross, her landlord and the fire department backing that claim.

Few's charge is a class C misdemeanor, the equivalent of a traffic ticket.