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

Ontario university students are too busy with their noses in books to look up and see the library late fees.

CBC reports numbers from the University of Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Guelph show that students owe tens of thousands of dollars on overdue library books.

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One student from Guelph owed a whopping $6,626 last year after losing 62 books, according to the broadcaster. The school said the student probably took all 62 books out at once. And then the student probably shoved the books under the bed, hoping that term paper would spring out of the pages like students bouncing out of class on a Friday afternoon.

But in the end, the school reduced the fine to $930 when the books finally turned up.

Students at the University of Waterloo have gathered about $72,000 in fines, according to the CBC, about $29,000 of which remain unpaid. There is an estimated $50,000 in late fees at Wilfrid Laurier this year. Guelph and Laurier students can't receive their diplomas unless they pay their fines, but Waterloo doesn't prevent students from graduating if they have irresponsibly borrowed books.

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These students don't have the option of blaming World War II for their late books, as did an Estonian man who recently returned a book 69 years late. In February, the New York Public Library also received a package containing a book that had been missing for more than half a century, along with a $100 cheque.