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Rua believes stealing the magazine weighed \"heavily on his conscience all these years later.\"

\"We used to loan magazines like that,\" he said. \"It was pretty commonplace for someone to borrow one or leave it in the branch. Apparently he wanted to keep it and own it.\"

Had the sender checked out the magazine and kept it, the library likely would have cut off the fees at some point and sent the amount to a collection agency, Rua said. However, if the fee accumulation was never-ending, the $100 likely wouldn't have covered five decades of late fees.

Currently, late fees stand at 10 cents per day for items like magazines, Rua said.

Ironically, the library is hosting a food drive on Friday in which people can absolve their late fees by bringing in food items for the local food bank.

\"If he'd have hung on for a few more days and brought canned food we could have wiped his fees out,\" Rua said with a chuckle.

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