Dead? You Still Have To Pay The Library Fine

Even if you're dead, you apparently still have to pay the fines on your overdue books at one New York library.

Resident Elizabeth Schaper says she was charged a 50-cent late fee while turning in a book that her late mother had checked out of a Harrison Public Library branch.

"I was in shock," Schaper says. "This has rocked me to my core."

Schaper's mother, Ethel Schaper, died at the age of 87 on September 16 after suffering a massive stroke. A few days later, Schaper found a library book, "The Price of Silence," by Camilla Trinchieri, that her mother had checked out from the library.

"My mother was an avid reader - she read an average of two books a week. She was a frequent patron of the library," Schaper says.

Schaper says she returned the book last week, and was stunned when the man behind the library counter told her of the 50-cent fee: "I told him that maybe he didn't hear me right, that my mother had just died, otherwise I'm sure that she would have returned it on time."

Schaper says. "His only reply was that, 'That will be 50 cents.'"

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