A Woman Owes $11K In Library Fees & Her TikTok Shows Exactly What Happened To The Books
That's a lot of zeros!
A woman checking out books at a library. Right: A library.
If you’re one of those people who doesn’t take library due dates seriously, one TikToker's video about her hefty library late fees will remind you to return those books as soon as they're due.
TikToker Hannah Jones, who says she is a Ph.D. candidate at Binghamton University in New York, recently posted a video about a scary email she received from her school library about her past due books and the amount she owes the library is enough to give most people a panic attack.
In the video, which now has over 300,000 views, Jones shares a screenshot of an email she received from the library reader services which informed her that she owes them $11,900 for the "119 lost books."
In the next clip, Jones gives her viewers a look into where the books are and all the 119 books can be seen scattered around her home.
"The books aren’t lost, I’m just hoarding them until I finish my dissertation," reads the caption over Jones' video.
@historyhan The librarian who sent this email must have felt so powerful 🫠 #gradstudentlife #gradstudent
The email begins by thanking Jones for reaching out to resolve the situation and quickly outlines all the reasons why she owes the library as much as she does, including the fact that her books were at least 30 days overdue.
Despite receiving notices about her past due books, Jones did not renew them, resulting in the fat fees worth almost $12,000.
"The librarian who sent this email must have felt so powerful," Jones wrote in the bio of her video.
People in the comment section reacted to Jones' video and most people were baffled about the hefty fees, prompting Jones to reveal more information on why her fees were so big to begin with.
One person commented, "Only 30 days overdue??? Damn, give a 'lil more time."” Jones responded to the comment by first saying "seriously" and then revealing that she had the books for well over 30 days and actually "had the books for years."
Another person wrote, "That’s why keeping library books past their due date is considered stealing," to which Jones responded, "A lesson was learned, I promise lol."
"My library only lets me check out 5 books at a time…" said one user to which Jones responded with a follow-up video, sharing that her university’s policy allows grad students to check out 200 books.
@historyhan Replying to @katannav the actual number of books I have checked out rn🫣🫣
Another person asked the question which most people were probably curious about, which was that did the library let her renew the books and did she end up paying the $11,900.
The commenter asked, "Are you still able to return them?"
Jones replied, "They let me renew them for a reasonable $20 fee, thank goodness!!!"
Thankfully things worked out for Jones, but this is a lesson to those who don’t pay attention to due dates and why you should start caring.
This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.