PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) – A book nearly five decades overdue has been returned to the Seminole High School library.
The copy of Hank Frey and Shaney Frey’s book “130 Feet Down: Handbook for Hydronauts” was checked out by Sergeant Barry Colbath with Pinellas County Schools Police back in March 1975.
Colbath said he checked out the book for a scuba diving course, but his instructor told him the book published in 1961 was out of date and he never returned it before he graduated in 1976.
Colbsaid said he had forgotten about the book until recently when his son found it while organizing a closet.
Sgt. Colbath returned to Seminole High School and gave the book to Michele Grego a school clerk. Grego said she laughed when she pulled the library card still inside the book and read that it was checked out in 1975.
“I told him that’s the year I was born,” Grego said.
So much is a fee for a book that’s nearly 50 years late?
According to Seminole High School Principal Jane Lucas, a book that’s long overdue would usually have a fee that would be the cost to replace the book. But the school no longer carries the book, Principal Lucas said the lesson Sgt. Colbath’s story teaches is priceless.
The book is still in circulation and available on Amazon for $15, Sgt. Colbath gladly paid a $15 fine.
