A Simi Valley husband and wife were arrested recently on charges of grand theft and receiving stolen property after police said they found them with 23,700 stolen books in their possession.

According to the Ventura County Sheriff's Department, Jose Hernandez, 46, and Risa Hernandez, 38, had been stealing textbooks from a reycling bin owned by Sage Publications of Newbury Park for a period of at least 18 months.

The unwanted books were to be picked up by a company that paid Sage by weight to recycle the paper.

"It took us two days to catalog all the books," Detective Eric Buschow said.

Sage Publications routinely disposes of 7,000 books at a time if there is a surplus of one edition and a new edition is coming out, or if there is an update on the cover or some defect, Buschow said.

Each textbook would sell for about $100 new, but could be sold used online for about $40, he said.

—Nancy Needham