Booking bookworms: Man arrested for overdue library book

Sticking his nose behind books has landed a Texas man behind bars after he failed to return an overdue text for three years.

KWTX.com reported an ordinance in Copperas Cove, Texas allows authorities to issue arrest warrants for late library patrons, and police have just booked a bookworm. Jory Enck had checked out a study guide for the General Educational Development (GED) tests, about three years before police encountered him during an unrelated incident, according to ABC. They found a warrant for his arrest in the system because he had never returned the study guide, and bang, they threw the book at him — the law book, that is.

Police brought Enck to jail but he was later released on a $200 bond with a scheduled court appearance for the charge. The study guide is back on the shelf at the library, KEYETV reported.

[ Related: Ontario university student racks up $6,600 in late fees after losing 62 library books ]

Sgt. Julie Lehmann at Copperas Cove told the Yahoo! Sideshow blog that book-related arrests are common, but police don't actively pursue rebel library patrons.

"Usually when we make contact, it's based on something else, like a traffic stop," she told the blog. "It's not as if we're actively out there going after these felony book thieves."

The Vancouver Public Library recently used smiling faces rather than mugshots to ferret out lost books during an amnesty campaign promising to forgive fines on overdue books.

Occasionally, books appear on library shelves after decades out in the world, sometimes accompanied by a cheque from a patron with a guilty conscience.