by: Keith BieryGolick
UNION TWP. — If Clermont County residents go into the Union Township library looking for the latest season of “Breaking Bad” or “How I Met Your Mother,” there’s a good chance they won’t find it.
Not because the library doesn’t carry those titles, but because 23 percent of the branch’s DVD and Blu-ray Disc collection were stolen.
“We’re talking roughly 200 (items),” said Adam Baker, Clermont County Public Library communications manager.
The report filed with the Union Township Police Department shows 185 DVDs worth $6,500 were stolen.
Over a period of three months, two individuals managed to get around the library’s security system and steal several TV box sets and other high dollar items without using force, according the report.
“All of our branches have security cameras and security gates at the doors. It appears these two people found a way around that,” Baker said.
“Our collection is open to the public, and we want to make it as accessible as possible, so it's unfortunate when somebody takes advantage of that.”
Charles Abney, a 31-year-old male who lives on 1560 Bethel-New Richmond Road, and Amy Druck, a 46-year-old female who lives on 563 Hopper View Bluff, have been charged with fifth-degree felonies for theft.
Druck will be sentenced later this month and Abney also will appear in court to enter a plea for intervention in lieu of conviction, according to court documents.
After Druck and Abney stole the Blu-ray Discs and DVDs, they sold them to Facet Jewelry, Music and Pawn in Amelia.
The twist is although the store knows it is in possession of stolen property, it has not returned yet that property.
“I think it’s really shocking that a pawn shop would know that they are in possession of materials that belong to the county library and they wouldn’t just return them unconditionally,” said Joe Braun, president of the library board of trustees in Clermont County.
“We purchased these materials using taxpayer dollars and they should be returned to the taxpayers.”
Representatives from Facet say the library will get its property back in the “next day or two.”
Originally, the store wanted the library to pay for what they bought the items for, but that is no longer the case, said Jamie Stowell, Facet’s district manager.
“In the end, they are going to get their movies back and we’re not asking for any money from them,” Stowell said.
In fact, the library might never have found out it was missing property if it weren’t for Facet, she said.
“We have an employee here ... (who) used to work for the library. She noticed we had a DVD for sale and it looked like the style of case that came from the library,” Stowell said.
“Once we found out we had more in pawn within certain time frames, we started pulling those off the shelves because we knew those probably belonged to the library.”
At that point, the library didn’t know anything was stolen, she said.
“We’re the ones that let the library know that (the DVDs) were even here to begin with,” Stowell said.
“We wanted to help them.”
Stowell said Facet followed its standard procedures, and they couldn’t have known the DVDS were stolen because no police report had been filed yet.
“When we take items in for pawn or purchase items we email a report to the local police department of everything we take. By law, we only have to report to the local police department, but we send (the report) to 15 jurisdictions,” she said.
“We also have a holding period - 15 days - before we can put it out for sale just to make sure it clears the police check. We did all of this.”
Braun said Facet officials want to return the material with “certain strings attached.”
“We needed to have documentation. We can’t just hand over merchandise,” Stowell said.
“They need to sign a form that they had received this merchandise and that they are the true owner of these items.”
Despite the situation, public libraries throughout Clermont County will continue to offer DVDs and Blu-ray Discs to its residents.
“The library has changed security procedures regarding all of our DVDs, Blu-ray (Discs) and all other electronic products,” Braun said.
Some of the more expensive items have been taken out of their cases and are now being kept behind the counter.
“They will still be a part of our collection. Our DVD and Blu-ray (Discs) are very popular,” Baker said.
from: Lancaster Eagle Gazette
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