Council addresses homeless shopping cart theft

 Encinitas Advocate:

First, it establishes that it’s unlawful under city municipal code to remove a shopping cart from a store’s premises or be in possession of a cart in an off-site area. Second, it makes it unlawful for stores to allow shopping carts to be abandoned, details how stores must identify the carts that they own, and states how quickly stores must collect abandoned carts. And, finally, the proposed ordinance spells out city code enforcement employees’ role in dealing with carts that have been dumped in hard-to-reach spots, such as stream beds, Steenblock said.

Steenblock said Encinitas spends about $3,000 to $6,000 a year in labor costs to remove abandoned grocery carts from places where they shouldn’t be. The city keeps them for 30 days in hopes that their owners will claim them, but typically that doesn’t happen, and the city ends up having to dispose of them, he said.