It's amazing what people will steal in order to make a quick buck. One of the last places that I would imagine anyone would shoplift from is a library, but in 2025 even those aren't safe anymore.

Well Connecticut, look around you as we end the first month of 2024 - Our retailers lock Similac and high-end fragrances behind glass, restaurants secure used cooking oil from thieves at the end of a long shift, and now we have to install security cameras in libraries? According to the Middletown Press, a 50-year-old man from Middletown has been arrested and faces multiple charges from multiple towns in Connecticut after an investigation uncovered that he had been allegedly stealing thousands of books from libraries in Wethersfield, Middletown, Portland and West Hartford.

Stack of books in a library, Stockholm, Sweden
Keith Levit
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Apparently, the alleged thief was able to get away with his scheme for a couple of years, cashing in stolen books to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars in returns. But wait, you and I ask, aren't library books marked in such a way that reputable resellers will not accept them? Yes, but Amazon.com exists, as well as: worldofbooks.com, bookscouter.com, booksrun.com, and bookdeal.com, and those are just on the first page of search results.

Most of the online book buyers that I clicked on seem reputable, but then again, Amazon.com is as bulletproof as one of our corporate Lords can be, yet fraud and stolen goods are posted on all of their sites every second of every day.

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