Woman faced felony charges for not returning a VHS tape she rented in 1999
In 1999—a time when copies of movies and TV series can be rented in the form of clunky VHS tapes and laser discs—a woman rented a Sabrina the Teenage Witch (a ‘90s sitcom starring Melissa Joan Hart) VHS tape from a video store in Norman, Oklahoma and failed to return it.
Twenty-one years later, the unreturned VHS tape haunted the woman when she discovered she had an outstanding warrant for it.
Caron McBride recently learned that she had an outstanding warrant for her arrest in the state of Oklahoma when she was trying to change her last name on her driver’s license after getting married in Texas in April.
Instead of being led to the Department of Motor Vehicles, she was directed to call the Cleveland County District Attorney’s Office, where she learned about the charges filed against her.
“She told me it was over the VHS tape and I had to make her repeat it because I thought, this is insane. The girl is kidding me, right? She wasn’t kidding,” McBride told local news outfit KOKH.
McBride was informed that there was a warrant for her arrest filed in March 2000 on felony embezzlement charges.
According to documents obtained by KOKH, McBride rented Sabrina the Teenage Witch on Feb. 14, 1999 from the now-defunct Movie Place (which closed down in 2008). Prosecutors said that McBride “willfully, unlawfully and feloniously embezzle(d)” the tape, which was valued at $58.59 (about P2,800).
McBride explained that she doesn’t remember renting the tape and she has never watched the show.
“I lived with a young man, this was over 20 years ago. He had two kids, daughters that were eight, 10 or 11 years old. And I’m thinking he went and got it and didn’t take it back or something,” she said.
During the course of learning about the outstanding charge against her, it became clear to McBride why she was having a hard time looking for a job for the past 20 years. She told KOKH that she had been let go from several jobs without any reason.
“This is why…because when they ran my criminal background check, all they are seeing are those two words: felony embezzlement,” said McBride.
After reviewing McBride’s case, the District Attorney’s office decided to dismiss it and the Cleveland County Clerk has reportedly been ordered to expunge the indictment.
Did you just look in your cobweb-infested entertainment shelf for unreturned VHS tapes?