Has anyone thought that any grocery cart you see being pushed by anyone down
the street away from a store parking lot is "Stolen" property? That any
person, other than a store employee, pushing such a cart is in possession of
stolen property? That ANY police cruiser passing a cart on the street should
stop and issue a tag to the person pushing the cart? How many individuals
have bought a grocery cart of their very own? How many stores just throw
their old carts out on the street?
I would hazard a guess that NO store wants its carts stolen. Perhaps I am
wrong, but I am sure that any store manager for Cub, Rainbow, or even Lund's
who gives permission for store carts to be taken and not returned would need
to find a new job when "Corporate" found out about it. So fining a business
for having its property stolen is indeed ridiculous! Such stolen property
should, if anything, be impounded by the police whenever spotted. Then if
the store did not come get it, the cart should be disposed of and the store
assessed the cost of disposable.
Stolen bicycles are randomly left laying around my neighborhood after being
stripped by the thieves. It is a problem, so should the owners of the
stolen bikes be fined when the bikes are discovered?
In my neighborhood "Junkers" use carts to hold the metal that they "salvage"
from people's yards and sometimes houses. The downspouts for the gutters on
a house I own were "salvaged" for their aluminum last fall. While some
might appreciate the clean up these scavengers supply to a neighborhood,
some of us others would appreciate if the scavengers would wait until the
body was dead before stripping it. These scavengers are very often pushing
grocery carts. Pushing clearly stolen merchandise, to gather other possibly
stolen merchandise. I wonder why this is not reason for "probable cause"?
In a neighborhood without cars getting groceries home is a major problem and
hardship. Perhaps people could leave a drivers license and get a note to
police that they have the cart for a short period legally. Then if the cart
is not returned then the person could be arrested for theft and the police
go right to their house. I think the police, the community, and the stores
could create a solution to the problem if they tried. Goofy, illogical,
ordinance Band-Aids are not the answer.
Oh, that's right. We do not have adequate police in Minneapolis to bother
drug dealers openly doing business on street corners in impacted,
"containment zone" neighborhoods. How can we expect these overworked few
Minneapolis Police Officers to stop stolen grocery carts when there just are
not enough police officers to address real crime and public safety issues?
Perhaps the answer is to have enough police officers, so they can address
both public safety and livability crime when the more serious crime is
running slow. Presently that almost never occurs. Officers are running from
one call to the next so fast that they simply are engaged in triage. Instead
of feel good laws and ordinances that put a Band-Aid on a skin cancer we
need elected political leaders to address the real problems in Minneapolis.
Make the fine for stealing a grocery cart and being caught a sure thing and
fewer will appear on the street corner. Of course the same goes for open
air drug dealing and gang-banging on the corner.
Perhaps Gary Dombouy is possible correct, and we should make an exception if
CM Robert is pushing an intoxicated friend home in a cart rather than
letting him drive a car. Even then that cart should be returned to the
store where he got it! I guess a little humor does help when looking at
comical reality.
Jim Graham,
Ventura Village
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