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Rochester man charged with stealing $24K in library books and CDs

By TIM HARLOW, Star Tribune

Last update: May 12, 2008 - 4:14 PM

A Rochester man has been charged for allegedly stealing thousands of dollars worth of materials from the city's public library.

According to a criminal complaint filed last week in Olmsted County District Court, Ronald Wayne Nickerson, 60, allegedly pretended to use a self-service checkout station to check out books, CDs, DVDs and VHS tapes, then took the items without actually signing them out.

A library employee called police Dec. 5, 2007 after a person who had been at Nickerson's address told the employee she had 100 to 200 cases of CDs in cases with Rochester Public Library labels on them. The person also said Nickerson told her that he stole the items by "faking" a checkout at a self-service machine and that he'd been doing that for more than a year, the complaint said.

Police executed a search warrant at Nickerson's on Dec. 7, 2007 and found three books, two CD-ROMs, four CDs, 60 VHS tapes and a DVD case with library labels on them. Nickerson confessed to moving "numerous Rochester Public Library items to another location" the day before police executed the warrant, the complaint said.

Nickerson subsequently returned the stolen items collectively valued at $24,020, the complaint said.

Nickerson is due in court June 2.

Officials with the Hennepin County Library system they have not had any major theft problems associated with its self-service checkouts. About 75 percent of the 16.3 million books and other items check out at the 41 branches (that includes the 15 Minneapolis branches that are now part of the Hennepin system) last year were done through self-service checkout stations.

Ramsey County officials say they have had "some theft issues, the same problems that all public libraries have," but resembling like the Rochester case. Even so, spokeswoman Kristi Saksvig, said Ramsey County will install be upgrading its security next year by installing the Radio Frequency Identification system.

"That will enhance security and help us track inventory," she said.