Long Overdue "Sabrina" VHS Leads to Embezzlement Warrant for Texas Woman

[JamesG]

Overdue VHS Tape from 1999 Leads to Warrant for Embezzlement
by Neil Vigdor
April 25, 2021


Video rental stores, pushed closer to the brink of extinction by streaming services like Netflix and changing technology, may be a thing of the past but an overdue rental became an issue of the present for a Texas woman.

The woman, who was identified in court records as Caron Scarborough Davis, recently learned that there was a 21-year-old outstanding warrant for her arrest in Oklahoma.




Prosecutors said that Ms. Davis had failed to return a copy of "Sabrina the Teenage Witch", a television sitcom that aired from 1996 to 2003. She rented the tape from a video store in Norman, Okla., in 1999, according to court documents.

She was charged with embezzlement of rented property, and a warrant was issued for her arrest in March 2000. The store where she rented the tape, Movie Place, closed in 2008, according to KOKH Fox 25 in Oklahoma.




In a charging document, prosecutors said that Ms. Davis “did willfully, unlawfully and feloniously embezzle a certain One (1) Videocassette Tape, Sabrina the Teenage Witch of the value of $58.59.” (It was not immediately clear whether the tape contained episodes of the series or the 1996 television movie that served as its unofficial pilot.)

Ms. Davis, 52, discovered the outstanding warrant for her arrest after she got married and tried to change her name on her driver’s license, KOKH reported on Thursday. “I thought I was going to have a heart attack,” she said.




Ms. Davis said motor vehicle officials referred her to the district attorney’s office for Cleveland County, Okla., where a woman explained the charge 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,’” Ms. Davis said. “This girl is kidding me, right? She wasn’t kidding.”




On April 21, prosecutors dropped the embezzlement charge against Ms. Davis in consideration of the “best interest of justice,” according to court documents. KOKH Fox 25 had contacted prosecutors the previous day about the charge.

Greg Mashburn, the district attorney for Cleveland, Garvin and McClain Counties in Oklahoma, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/25/u...n-warrant.html

[JamesG]

[RetroGuy2000]

Crazy. There's no way that tape was worth $58, and there's no way she should have been changed with a felony. Ridiculous government overreach.

[JamesG]

Originally Posted by RetroGuy2000

Crazy. There's no way that tape was worth $58, and there's no way she should have been changed with a felony. Ridiculous government overreach.

There was a similar incident a few years ago with a man who didn't know he had a warrant for an overdue Freddy Got Fingered VHS.

[RetroGuy2000]

Originally Posted by JamesG

There was a similar incident a few years ago with a man who didn't know he had a warrant for an overdue Freddy Got Fingered VHS.

Well, that film starred Tom Green. I say they've got a case with that one.

[80sTrivia]

Crazy! Maybe Melissa Joan Hart will offer help for legal counsel!

There was a similar incident a few years ago with a man who didn't know he had a warrant for an overdue Freddy Got Fingered VHS.

The store could have gone to any landfill in the country and found a copy of that movie to replace the one not returned!