Police searching for man accused of using young girl's library card to steal items from local libraries

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MILWAUKEE COUNTY, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Police are looking for a man accused of using a young girl's library card to steal hundreds of dollars worth of things that he checked out.

Sha'kiya Hanson misplaced her library card on her way to return some books and it set off a chain of events she couldn't have imagined. She's 12-years-old, loves to read, and has a message for the man who found her card.

"I would hope he sees this and I would hope he gets a really serious consequence because one, I'm only a little kid and two, he should've been the kind of guy to return it so I can just be able to do what I want to do as a little kid," Sha'kiya said.

Surveillance photos from the Cudahy Library capture the man that police say has been fraudulently using Sha'kiya Hanson's library card.

Police say the suspect used a self-checkout machine to take out 10 DVDs valuing $250, and that's just in Cudahy. Officers say he actually hit multiple libraries, checking out 41 items in all. Sha'kiya says her home library in West Allis lost multiple DVDs. 

"I was kind of scared because I like to read and I wanted to be able to go back and at the same time, I knew if you didn't return books you have to pay every day," Sha'kiya said.

Her worries over losing the card went beyond late fees. "They can hack people off their names so I didn't know what kind of person he was so maybe it could've wrecked my future if he stole my identity."

Some library patrons were disappointed to hear a child's innocent mistake could lead to such criminal behavior.

"It's just a terrible thing that someone would take advantage of the use of somebody else's card, especially somebody who probably just lost it," said David Smith, a Cudahy Library cardholder.

Sha'kiya won't be paying any fees to the Cudahy Library and her mom says as soon as they file a police report in West Allis, they'll be off the hook there too.



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