A $9,000 library fine, and more

last updated 8 January 2015

A $9,000 library fine

An overdue library book has finally been returned—after 110 years. Mutt Baird originally checked out the 1,553-page Webster’s dictionary from the Lyn Public Library in Ontario in 1899, but forgot to return it when he and his family moved to New York state that winter. Last week, his nephew, 83-year-old Dale Fenton Baird Sr. of Denver, presented it to Orval Ladd, president of the Lyn Heritage Place Centre, in time for Lyn’s 225th anniversary. The fine came to more than $9,000, but it was waived. “I know you had a guilty conscience,” Ladd joked to Baird.

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