**Man Returns Overdue Baseball Book to Public Library 50 Years Later**
A man in the United States borrowed a book related to baseball from a public library when he was young, but never returned it. It wasn’t until 50 years later, when he tried to return the book, that he found out his borrowing record had been deleted. The library staff told him he could keep it and didn’t need to return it.
According to the Associated Press, Chuck Hildebrandt, a 63-year-old resident of Chicago, grew up in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan, and is now retired.
In 1974, at the age of 13, he borrowed the book “Baseball’s Zaniest Stars” from the Warren Public Library in Michigan. He was a baseball fan at the time.
Hildebrandt, who has moved many times and lived in various cities throughout his life, remarked, “When you’re moving with a bunch of books, you don’t check each one. You just throw them into a box and go.”
However, about five or six years ago, while browsing his bookshelves, he noticed a library code on this particular book. A slip of paper inside indicated that it was due to be returned on December 4, 1974.
He decided to keep the book until 2024, which marked the 50th anniversary, before returning it.
In November of this year, he returned the book to the library and met with the library director, Oksana Urban. He received no overdue penalties and was told he could keep the book.
Urban told the Detroit Free Press, “Some people never come back to face the consequences. But there really is no penalty to face because he and the book have been deleted from our system.”
Based on the library’s current overdue fine of 25 cents per day, the overdue book from 50 years ago should have incurred a fine of $4,563.75. This calculation does not account for inflation adjustments.
Hildebrandt has now returned “Baseball’s Zaniest Stars” and has set up a fundraising campaign on GoFundMe for the non-profit organization “Reading is Fundamental.” He aims to raise exactly the amount that he would have owed in overdue fines, $4,564. So far, he has raised $3,361.
The author of “Baseball’s Zaniest Stars,” Howard Liss, was a former ship worker from Brooklyn, New York. During his time, he led a comfortable life thanks to the income from books like “The Giant Book of Strange But True Sports Stories.”
The book tells stories of famous baseball players in the Major League Baseball, such as pitcher Rube Waddell and infielder Germany Schaefer.
As a fan, Hildebrandt held season tickets for the Chicago Cubs. He is skilled at catching foul balls and has at least 10 foul balls placed on a home-plate-shaped rack on his wall.
In a previous report by Dajiyuan, the Carbondale Public Library in Pennsylvania received a book returned almost 120 years overdue in 2023. The book was in good condition, and the borrowing card was still intact, revealing who the borrower was back then.
If the current fine rate of 25 cents per day were applied, the man Horace Short, who borrowed the book in 1904, would owe $10,910.25. Fortunately, the library granted Short (or his family) an “amnesty” and waived the fine.