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Woman Gets Probation After Peddling Library Books on Amazon

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Photo by Angelo Henry via the LAist Featured Photos pool
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A woman in San Diego County is every librarian's worst nightmare: she checked out thousands of books from the library that she re-sold on Amazon.

Maria Nater, 45, of Vista pleaded guilty to felony burglary after checking out more than 2,000 books and DVDs from libraries in Carlsbad, Oceanside and San Diego, according to a local Fox affiliate.

The librarians at Carlsbad were onto her first when they noticed that way too many books on cooking, crafts and animals seemed to be missing. Authorities searched Nater's home and found thousands of books estimated at $5,400. Some had the barcodes ripped off, and some of them were already wrapped and ready to ship.

Nater was ordered to pay $7,600 in restitution and she was sentenced to three years of probation. She was ordered to do 30 days of volunteer work and she might have to take a parenting class, too. For the time being she's not allowed to have accounts on eBay, Amazon or Craigslist and she's not allowed anywhere near a library.

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