Overdue library book returned after 49 years with an apology note

When your library book is so overdue that the fine is waived out of pity, you know you've been negligent.

A Minnesota man and alumnus of the University of Dayton recently returned a book overdue by 49 years.

According to the university, James Phillips, who was a freshman when he checked out History of the Crusades in 1967, has technically been fined two cents each day for the last 49 years. Luckily for Phillips, the school has politely waived his more than $350 fine.

Phillips returned the book after finding it in an old box filled with his things from college. He mailed the book to the campus, along with a brief note.

Please accept my apologies for the absence of the enclosed book History of the Crusades. I apparently checked it out when I was a freshman student and somehow it got misplaced all these years.

The takeaway: With time, your stolen public library copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone from 1998 will one day not cause you daily anxiety.

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