Senior citizen booked in library thefts

By: JO MORELAND - Staff Writer | Thursday, May 5, 2005 12:30 AM PDT ∞

ESCONDIDO ---- Police booked a wheelchair-using senior citizen into jail this week for allegedly stealing CDs and DVDs from the Escondido Public Library, then selling the items on the Internet.

The suspect, 63-year-old Georgianne Lynn Halatek, was scheduled to appear today in the Vista Courthouse.

Officers arrested Halatek at her senior citizen's apartment complex on suspicion of commercial burglary, possession of stolen property and petty theft with a prior conviction, detective Lt. David Mankin said Wednesday.

"We found an additional 35 DVDs and 15 CDs (in the apartment) that had not been sold yet," Mankin said.

All of them had Escondido library markings and they hadn't been checked out to Halatek, police said.

"She has an 18-year-old warrant for felony theft out of L.A. County," said Mankin. "She waived her rights. She said she had been stealing DVDs and CDs for the last four months, not just from our library, but others. She said she's in debt and needed the money."

Halatek hasn't told police which other libraries might have been victims, he said.

"In the past year we have estimated a loss of at least $20,000 in CDs and DVDs," said Escondido City Librarian Laura Mitchell. "This (suspect) is not the only person."

Mitchell said theft has become worse since the library started buying DVDs, because they're so desirable, small and easy to smuggle.

"We're not going to tolerate this," she said. "We have taken steps to ensure that this is not going to happen again."

The library has just spent $30,000 from its trustee fund to install new security gates, locking cases for DVDs and a surveillance camera system for the lobby and checkout area, the librarian said. She said library staff is also being trained to be more vigilant.

The library's loss will be more than $1,000 in the Halatek case, which is an unusual one, Mankin said.

"You get an occasional book or something missing (from a library), but usually it's something that somebody forgot to return," said the police veteran of more than 20 years. "You don't get someone stealing something week after week."

Mitchell said once library staff decided that something was wrong, two employees were told to keep an eye on Halatek. The suspect has been coming into the library two to four times a week for more than a year, the librarian said.

Last Friday, Mankin said, watchful library employees saw something suspicious as Halatek made her usual visit in a wheelchair. She weighs more than 300 pounds, police said.

"Also, employees heard this lady say she does a lot of business on e-Bay," Mankin said.

The staff discovered later that four DVDs that hadn't been checked out were gone, including "Dodge City" and "Beyond Violence," said Mankin.

Library staff called police Monday. Officers checked the e-Bay Internet site and discovered Halatek was offering DVDs and CDs for sale, with a statement saying they were "donated" by the Escondido Public Library, Mankin said.

"The Escondido Public Library does not donate things for sale to private citizens," the lieutenant said.

Police took Halatek into custody Tuesday morning and booked her into the Las Colinas jail for women in Santee. With her bail set at $30,000, she was still there Wednesday.

Investigators learned that Halatek had allegedly been stealing four or five DVDs or CDs at a time while checking out one or two others during the same visits so library staff wouldn't get suspicious, Mankin said.

"She did say that she eventually planned on paying the library back," he said. "I don't know how."

Contact staff writer Jo Moreland at (760) 740-3524 or jmoreland@nctimes.com.

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