In a message dated 25/02/2009 GMT Standard Time, [email protected] writes: [email protected] wrote:
>In a message dated 24/02/2009 15:49:59 GMT Standard Time, >[email protected] writes: > >What do you do in response to that sort of thing? > >AFAIA It's the local authority's responsibility to ensure the stores do not >allow trolleys to be dumped anywhere they shouldn't. Yeah, sure. Always sensible to blame the victim. He's easy to find. Hasn't it occurred to you that, before a cart is dumped, it first has to be *stolen* from a supermarket? So where are the suggestions for prosecuting the thieves (who are also the litterers)? I agree whole-heartedly with you, but I was responding directly to a query about what could be done at the current time, not what could be done if the situation were different. A similar situation exists where leaflets are handed out in the street to advertise goods and services. If a recipient throws one down on the floor, the advertising organisation is open to prosecution (possibly as well as the person dropping the litter). The simple thing is that the trolley/leaflet will carry the name of the organisation, so it can be traced back to a specific origin. If a prosecution is considered, there is a much better chance of a successful outcome if you put the onus on someone who can be identified than if you try to identify every person who commits the offence. So the onus has been shifted onto the organisation to ensure the trolley/leaflet does not get deposited where it shouldn't be. In an ideal world, if someone walks through your (open) front door and steals your DVD Player then it is the thief's fault for not respecting your property and for having the weakness of will not to resist the temptation of causing mischief. But we would (probably) all say that if you leave your front door open then what do you expect to happen? Unless the supermarket is reminded (or forced) to take action to prevent their trolleys from being stolen they will be prepared to take the loss and do nothing about it - it's probably costed into the business model anyway. But at a conservative price of £50 a trolley, you and I will have to buy an awful lot of beans to repay the supermarket the cost of a new trolley to replace the one that someone else pushed into the cut. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
