MIAMI, (AFP) - An 80-year-old great-grandmother was arrested and jailed in Florida this week for passing a rubber check 19 years ago, press reports say.


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Elizabeth Milton was stopped for a routine traffic check by a police officer on Wednesday.


"A few minutes later he came back to my car and said, 'I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to take you in'," she told the St. Petersburg Times.


The police said a computer check turned up an outstanding warrant for Milton charging she had written an insufficient-funds check for 145.93 on December 24 1985.


Milton told the Times she had no recollection of writing the check: "I can't recall what I ate last week."


The police held her in a jail cell until 4:30 a.m. the following morning, when her children posted 1,000 dollars bail.


A sheriff's department spokesman insisted the arresting officer had followed correct procedure in taking Milton in, but conceded it might have been handled differently.


"I know the sergeant (who made the arrest) and if he'd known she was 80 years old he would have said, 'Hey, let's think about this," said spokesman Rod Reder.


"But the fact is the deputy followed procedure. At what age do we say a woman is too old to be taken to jail? We can't waive a judicial warrant just because we feel like it."


Pam Bondi, spokeswoman for the Florida State Attorney's Office, said she had no idea why the warrant was still on the books.


"I would assume the statute of limitations is long gone by now," she said.

I wonder if her kids used a rubber cheque to bail her out

hmmm.. thought the typical statute of limitations was like 10 years?

that is why they said..."You can run but you cant hide..dude"