In 1985, Hasford had borrowed 98 books from the Sacramento, California public library and was wanted for grand theft there. Then, in 1988, shortly before the Oscars ceremony, he was charged with theft after campus police from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California, found nearly 10,000 library books in his rented storage locker. At that time, he had 87 overdue books and five years of "Civil War Times" magazine issues checked out from the Cal Poly-SLO library; the materials were valued at over $20,000.